


Hajime's Next Life as a Villain: All Roads Lead to Doom

by DatLAG



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Class Trials (Dangan Ronpa), Hajime Gets Transported Into Another World That Is Actualy A Dating Sim, Hot Springs & Onsen, Humor, It's basically kinda the plot of My Next Life as a Villainess, Jealousy, Love Confessions, M/M, Magic, Magic School, Nightmares, Oblivious Hajime Hinata, Painting, Reincarnation, Slow Burn, Slow Dancing, Swordfighting, Temporary Character Death, Unrequited Love, but not for the obvious endgame, in spades, meta jokes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:47:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 47,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27366784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DatLAG/pseuds/DatLAG
Summary: Hajime is reincarnated into another world, a world directly inspired of a dating sim his best friend used to play in his previous life.And too bad for him, he's reincarnated as the villain, the one that dies or suffers a grim fate on every route.His objective: Find a way to avoid his doom, even when all roads the MC could take leads to it.But who knows? Maybe some newfound friends, classmates and this MC will save him from his cruel fate with a bit of luck.
Relationships: Hinata Hajime/Komaeda Nagito, Kirigiri Kyoko/Naegi Makoto, Kuzuryu Fuyuhiko/Pekoyama Peko
Comments: 264
Kudos: 380
Collections: Reincarnation and Transmigration





	1. Game Start

**Author's Note:**

> Look I like the anime and Hajime as an oblivious harem protagonist is perfect! Cuz ya know he already is kind of that hjdhbvfdj  
> We all know who the endgame is gonna be but believe me I am gonna have fun with this  
> Expect: Unrequited love from the other suitors (he will let them down gently), lots of Hajime chest joke cuz duh it's supposed to come from a dating sim, and massive obliviousness.

Hajime rubbed his eyes heavily before slowly getting up from his giant comfy red bed. He stumbled his way to the massive blinds of his room and opened them with one swift movement, the sunlight blinding him for a few seconds before he turned around and strolled to the bathroom.

He really needed to clean himself correctly for today, as the start of the real struggle has only just begun.

As he observed himself in the mirror, he reviewed everything he did ever since he arrived into this world, like the start resume of a video game ironically.

His past life was cut-short by an in-coming truck like the cliché start of an isekai anime, and following the trope, he woke up in the body of a 7 year old noble in another world.

And not just any other world, as a quick glance around him made him aware of where he was exactly.

A freaking noble fantasy dating sim game his best friend in his past life was obsessed with. Amazing.

He knew of it of course, as said best friend would rant to him about any and all progress she would make in the game, so he had more knowledge on the game that he would ever like.

First order of business:

He cut his hair because of course his character was the one with the long-ass black hair.

Who turned out to be the selfish asshole noble, the villain character of the story.

Yes, he was in an awful position to say the least. At least for some reason the Red Eyes Of Imminent Doom the original character had were halved, literally has for some reason his right eye turned green. His eye color in his previous life.

After his haircut at least, he looked like his original self more. Minus the hair lock that looked like an antenna.

He remembered analysing his situation. He was the villain in a dating sim. And as the villain, he was the one to be standing in the main character’s way when he engaged into the route of the characters.

Which meant there were a lot of routes where he died. Or got exiled. Or got married off to an asshole.

So his ultimate objective: Find a way to survive through the scenario. Which meant he had to be as far away from the MC’s way as possible.

Since he remembered the game’s story, he could follow some type of route to be sure nothing goes _too_ south. His first order of business was to break off the engagement his character was locked in at the start, as his fiancee: Mikan Tsumiki, was a route for the MC to take. And of course he died in that one. So as kids, he quickly clarified to her that she could break the engagement whenever she liked. It eventually happened a few years later. Poor Mikan would’ve eventually grew into a scared weak girl if she had stayed with him, as of course, in the original story, he was an abusive piece of shit.

Over the years however, their parents still wanted them to keep in contact. He would hate to disturb anything, but he complied and decided to interact normally with her. Maybe he could actually make a friend, and help her grow into her own person.

Aside from that, next step was training. This world had magic, but he was _pathetic_ at it. This also led into the villain’s curbstomp battle where he got destroyed by the MC’s super powerful magic. So he had no way of defending himself if push came to shove, so he trained himself in the ways of the sword.

After asking for training from his father, he instead made him meet Peko Pekoyama and her fiance Fuyuhiko Kzuryu, and the former taught him as Hajime’s dad thought it would be better for him to learn with kids his age. Peko was also a route in the game and a future amazing swordswomen, however in that route, Fuyuhiko played more of the rival role but he would eventually give up and give the couple his blessing before leaving.

Why couldn’t Hajime have at least one route that led to this!?

He became quick friends with the both of them, and it seemed like Fuyuhiko practically considered him a brother over the years. Also, while he was nowhere near as good as Peko, he also took interest in sword fighting and helped Hajime out with his training.

For now, it was really all he could do. After all the game only began when all of the main cast entered the Wizard Academy: Hope’s Peak. And this day was today. The game officially started when the protagonist passed the threshold of the academy. This was when the troubles would officially start for Hajime as well.

He sighed, after cleaning himself he made his way back to his room to slip into his clothing.

And right away there was an issue.

He had no trouble with his pants, but for some reason the buttons of the shirt at his chest just refused to close, no matter how much he pulled the two ends just wouldn’t meet. He didn’t remember this from the game, maybe because it was thanks to all his physical training. But why would his clothes not fit right on the D-Day!?

He decided to call one of the maids for help. The character was also an asshole to them, but here he tried his best to not ask too much of them and treat them respectfully.

His personal maid, Kirumi Tojo answered him. “Yes Master Hajime?”

He remembered having a lot of trouble with that at first, his name being the same. He remembered this was why his friend Chiaki bought the game in the first place, one of the characters had the same given name and family name as him, and she thought it was hilarious. Hajime Hinata _was_ horribly common, so he should’ve known. But over around 10 years of having been in this world, he eventually got over it and got used to this environment.

“Yes, it’s… my clothing, it’s too tight. I tried other shirts but they are all too short as well…” He embarrassingly admitted.

“I see. I will search in your father’s wardrobe if there is anything that could fit you for the day. I will fix the clothing in due time.” She professionally stated.

He sighed in relief. “Thank you very much.”

She eventually came back with a larger white shirt that fit, and a black coat with golden inseam on its edges. He was at least lucky to have been reincarnated(?) as a noble character.

After the preparations, the brunette walked outside of his massive mansion and was about to get into his carriage for Hope’s Peak. His parents gave him a tearful goodbye, and he hoped on in.

The real fight started now.

* * *

Now installed in the school’s dorm, Hajime observed said school from his window.

This was where the game began, this was also where the MC would be.

The brunette referred to them as the “MC” as his name was chosen by the player. Their actions were player choice too, so there was no way to have a perfect portrait character’s personality. All Hajime knew was that he was canonically a nice person with a bit of a weirdo streak. But he knew what he looked like however, a slender physically weak teen with cloud-like hair and grey eyes. There were a lot of characters taken in by his ephemeral like appearance, and in Hajime's opinion, he _was_ quite handsome.

The people enrolled at Hope’s Peak were usually of noble birth, as magic ran strong in blue blood, but the MC was a commoner with rare and very powerful luck magic (In Hajime’s opinion, the magic was less for story importance and more of an excuse for the plot to happen). He was nicknamed the Lucky Student or Luckster often by the game and it was a bit of his fan nickname as well.

Hajime’s changes on the game's routes might have some impact on the MC’s interactions however. He was not in the way of Mikan’s route anymore, and she had grown a bit more of a spine, but she was still meek and clumsy. Peko and Fuyuhiko had a great relationship going thanks to Hajime acting as a bit of a bridge between the two while training, so the brunette might have accidently made this route harder if the Luckster were to take it.

And at least, Hajime had made friends with the three of them, so he might have some allies if by fate, he was about to be killed. Of course he didn’t befriend them just for that, he also genuinely liked them as people after he got over the weirdness of interacting with a living breathing game character.

Still, Hajime’s fate depended on how romance developed between the conquerable characters and this mysterious MC.

* * *

Like a high-school from his original world, there was a speech from the principal in the main hall. Said principal was Makoto Naegi, a man that was previously a commoner and was, like the Lucky Student, also born with luck magic. It was implied by the game he was some type of MC previously himself, as the MC could go to him for advice and Makoto would speak his tales of harem shenanigans before he settled and married his wife Kyoko, who was her secretary. He was a good person through and through who trusted his students a bit too much, but Kyoko would be there to keep things in check if his trusting streaks were getting overboard.

When Hajime entered the hall, he bumped into Mikan, who instantly started panicking and apologizing. He talked her down and proposed that they both sit next to each other to hear the principal’s speech.

While Makoto was delivering hopeful words, Hajime looked around to see if any other important characters came into view.

“I-is something wrong..?” Asked the clumsy girl.

The brunette snapped back his attention to her. “Oh no nothing. I was just curious about everyone here.”

“Oh, alright.” She fidgeted a bit in her seat.

He knew this was one of her tells when she wanted to speak up about something but couldn’t bring herself to talk. “Is there something you want to ask?”

“H-Hum… Would y-you…” She took a deep breath. “W-would you mind coming to my room for some tea a-afterwards?”

The reincarnated teen could tell she put a lot of courage in asking, so he smiled at her and acquiesced. “That sounds great! I’m looking forward to it.”

* * *

They both settled down in Mikan’s room. The place was covered in soft pillows, blankets and stuffed animals, as well as plenty of medical supplies on the shelves. Even if Mikan specialized in healing magic, she always found the old ways of healing fascinating.

Hajime was far more focused however on the treat she had brought with her to go with the tea.

“Kusamochi!” He exclaimed.

She showed a meek smile. “I know y-you love it so, I tried getting some for you.”

Saying that he loved it was an understatement. It was his comfort food for any time he felt down or depressed about his possible dooms. “Oh thank you Mikan! I hope you didn’t have any trouble getting it…”

“N-no! I hum… My m-maid cooked it… I asked her t-to be familiar with t-the recipe so she could make it for w-when you visit.” She shyly reached for a cup of warm tea.

The brunette never got rid of his childish excitement when it came to his favorite food, so he wholeheartedly thanked her. "Thank you Mikan!” He also reached for a cup.

“N-no problem.” They both sipped from their cup and Hajime munched on some treats before she continued. “Oh and I met someone on the way to the hall.”

Now this was getting _very_ interesting.

“Oh?”

“Y-yes. I think it was the Lucky Student everyone i-is speaking of. I got lost on the way to the hall, and he showed m-me the way.”

Hajime knew of this, this was the first event of the game. Mikan would meet the MC, as she got lost searching for the hall. The Luckster would then walk her there, and, profoundly touched by his kindness, she would start to fall for him.

Hajime wouldn’t mind at all if he went down her route, he wasn’t in the way, and he wanted Mikan to meet someone she liked and that would take care of her. She deserved to be happy.

“What did you think of him Mikan?” He asked. Curious if there was any flag triggered. If yes, she would gush about him, if not, she would be neutral on the encounter.

She clapped her hands and smiled. So he triggered a fla-

“He was very nice, he made me think a lot of you!”

Oh.

This… this wasn’t what he expected. Here he was ready for a gushing session on the guy or a handwave.

She continued. “He’s a bit blunt j-just like you, but I’m a b-bit used to it by now. But it was nice! M-maybe I can make a new friend!”

He really hoped the MC didn’t plan on going down that road, cuz he was hitting the friendzone already.

“O-oh- I’m not trying t-to replace you or anything! I swear!”

He internally shook his head he shouldn’t jump to conclusions. This was the _first_ encounter. There are other flags, and they said love changes people, so there was no telling when Mikan would be conquered.

“I’m trying to do like you encouraged me to this on-one time, that I s-should build-u-up courage a-and make friends!”

At least he wasn’t engaged to her and was directly the enemy, but there was still the possibility of things going south, even her friendship road led to dire consequences for him.

“Y-you’re v-very important t-to m-me Hajime, s-s-s-so… I w-want to… h-hum…”

There is also the chance he would go down said friendship route, or just not go down her route at all. Hajime needed to watch out for all possibilities.

“H-Hajime! Your tea!”

“Huh?”

The time he snapped back into the world of the conscious, he noticed his hand was starting to flinch and he spilled some burning tea on himself.

“ **OOOWWWW!** ”

After Mikan gently treated his burns with some healing magic, and even insisted he take off his pants to have a more thorough observation, he quickly retreated back to his room as it was getting late.

He felt like Mikan was talking about something while he was lost in thought. Oh well, it probably wasn’t that important.

* * *

The wheel of fate has turned. Hajime came across the MC in a school hallway.

They only just walked past each other, and the brunette could tell that the game was not exaggerating. He truly possessed an ethereal beauty, pale skin, white fluffy hair, pretty greyish eyes, slim figure, Hajime was almost envious. He couldn’t help but let out a “Wow.” after he disappeared into a corner. No wonder he was the protagonist of the game, his attractiveness was no joke. He could really conquer any character he wanted, and if he was the genuine nice person Mikan described as, it was just a matter of time before he hooked up with someone.

The brunette calmed himself down. It was just an exchange of glance in the hallway. No need to panic. He didn’t even actively interact with him, no need to rush. They would talk and interact more later. Probably.

Nonetheless, it was good to prepare just in case. Maybe more sword fighting will help him get his mind off things.

Good for him as there was a training ground for swordplay. Nobles favored magic instead of direct fighting, but there were still a few that preferred the old ways.

On his way here, he met with Peko and Fuyuhiko.

“Hey bro! What’s up dude?” Asked the blonde noble.

“Hello Fuyuhiko, hello Peko.” He bowed to them. He knew it was probably not necessary for him to do that with such longtime friends, but he felt like he needed to give a little bit more respect to Peko, who oozed power and could kill over a dozen times. She bowed as well, and Hajime answered Fuyuhiko. “I’m fine, I wanted to do some sword training to get my mind off things.”

“We were on our way to the training grounds as well.” Clarified Peko.

“Would you mind being my sparring partner Peko?” Asked the brunette.

“Not at all.”

Fuyuhiko cracked his knuckles and laughed. “Hey, let me fight him this time! I didn’t forget my last loss you sneaky bastard!”

As impolite as ever. “Sure, give it your best shot!”

Both boys changed into training clothing, a white button up and black pants, and started sparring under Peko’s watchful eye, judging their moves and playing the role of referee.

In between matches, they would sit for a little bit to drink and wipe some sweat off of them (Hajime would also readjust the training shirt, as his Too Tight At The Chest Curse moved on to the borrowed sparring clothes of the school, and he would rather die than go around with half his buttons open and exposing himself, even if it meant he had to suffocate).

“I was lucky to have found you guys on the way!” Declared Hajime.

“Yeah!” Fuyuhiko spoke up after gulping a glass of water. “Hey by the way Hajime, I met the Lucky Student just before bumping into you!”

Another interesting conversation.

“The guy everyone talks about?”

“Yep, he was searching for the Health Care room.”

That was also one of the game’s events, the MC would join the Health Care Committee (as he would get hurt a lot by his luck magic) and bond with Mikan who also joined, and would accessorily meet Peko as she would get hurt a lot training alone and the MC would take care of her.

However…

Peko walked up to Fuyuhiko. “You have a bruise on your leg.”

“Oh shit- really?”

She reached for a box of bandages in silence and started patching Fuyuhiko up.

That was what Hajime thought.

In the original game, Fuyuhiko didn’t have a lot of interest in sword fighting and would let Peko train alone, so she had no one to fix her up.

But now that Hajime made the sword bridge between them, they became training partners and she had someone to look after her now.

He _really_ made the Peko route a lot harder isn’t it?

This made him glance into the health kit.

“Oh Peko, I think you’re out of bandages.”

She glanced back at it. “Indeed, it seems I forgot to refill.”

“It’s alright.” Hajime got up. “I’ll go fetch some at the Health Care Committee. Be right back!”

He walked his way in the fancy corridors. He noticed the other students staring at him, probably because he was in training clothing. He still self consciously held onto his buttons, as he felt it getting very tight on him, hopefully he won’t rip a button out accidently.

He knocked on the door and heard someone telling him to come in. He entered and surprise surprise, here was standing the Lucky Student.

Hajime almost gasped, but he needed to stay natural. Stay _natural_ . It didn’t matter if the guy in front of him would make the difference between his gruesome death and exile. He needed to _stay calm._

The brunette bowed. “Excuse me. I’m training with some friends and I need some bandages.”

Mister MC stayed silent for a moment, and his eyes darted around the room as if looking for somewhere to stare before smiling. “Of course Master… what is your name?”

Oh right the Master stuff, it also made him uncomfortable at first that this was how men were called, and not just a term for servants to refer to their boss. “Hajime. Hajime Hinata. You don’t need to bother with the Master business, just call me how you want.”

He was going to have to frequent the protagonist a lot, so it was better to be on good terms with him.

“Alright Hinata.” So family name. He was alright with that. “Just wait a moment please.”

“Thank you.” MC disappeared behind another door and Hajime sighed heavily and looked out the window.

He just needed to stay calm and not make it weird. He could do this.

He heard a weird noise coming from his shirt, he looked down, and it looked like his shirt button was about to crack. He gritted his teeth and grabbed his shirt in panic. It just needed to hold out a little longer!

The door opened gently, Luckster appeared with a box of bandages. “Here you go.”

Hajime snapped back his attention to the white haired teen. “Oh thank you!” He let go of his shirt to take the box in hand.

While they were both holding the box, MC spoke up. “Hum, Hinata?”

“Yes?”

MC was looking down with a flush and was trying to point to the brunette’s chest while still holding the box.

And the moment Hajime looked down at his shirt, the button couldn’t take it anymore and flew off with a snap, landing right between the eyes of MC with brutal force.

“Oh **CRAP!”**

And their meeting started with a chest accident. Hopefully this wasn’t some kind of omen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **BOOM HEADSHOT** Hajime's chest 1; Shirts 0  
> Dense As A Blackhole Hajime Strikes Again 2 Electric Boogaloo  
> Look guys, Hajime is kinda a harem protagonist already so this type of scenario is perfect. He’s our sweet precious Hajime Hibaka.  
> I mean we all know what the endgame is but I always wanted to write harem shenanigans alright, and I swear I will treat each and every harem member with the utmost care and they will all be turned down very gently and sweetly  
> Also i dunno which rythm I will have with the chapters, as uni is back to kick my ass. Anyways, i hope you enjoy this!


	2. Raising Flags

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another day, another fight to avoid doom. And this was a day where Hajime stumbles onto another romance route.
> 
> By stumbling it was more like tripping and crashing into it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TIME! FOR! MORE CHARACTERS!  
> I felt extra productive today for some reason so here have another update!
> 
> Though I don't know when I'm gonna update again as uni is going to destroy me tomorrow.

The protagonist finally woke up from his One Hit KO, his head was on Hajime’s lap, as he fell down the brunette catched him and didn’t know where to put him. So he settled for the easy way the time MC came to his senses.

The white haired teen blinked awake and was greeted by a worried Hajime. “Are you alright? I’m sorry about that…”

The Luckster slowly sat up. “I’m fine! I’m used to that type of stuff!”

The brunette raised an eyebrow. “Used to buttons flying up in your face..?”

“Nope that was the first time!” The MC smiled in return.

So this was what the fans meant by “weirdo streak”. Hajime sighed and helped MC up. The Lucky Student took his hand (which was surprisingly soft) and thanked him. The brunette still felt horribly guilty and embarrassed. “I’m _so_ sorry.”

“Like I said it’s alright! And don’t you need to bring bandages to your friends?”

“Oh right!” Hajime hurried to the box and took it under his arm.

“Also Hinata…”

“Yes?”

MC was trying to avoid looking at the other’s bust with a slight blush. “You should get your shirt fixed.”

Hajime practically gasped and hid himself with his arms while flushing. He just wanted to run out of there, which was just what he was going to do. He grit his teeth and walked to the exit in a hurry. “Thanks for the bandages!”

The Lucky Student waved him goodbye with a smile.

* * *

He forgot to ask his name.

This was all Hajime needed to remind himself to facepalm. At this point, he, Fuyuhiko and Peko have long finished their little training and they were all going home their separate ways, as they were in a different dorms.

Just before going however, Fuyuhiko gave him a bamboo sword in a golden and red bag. This reminded Hajime of the gift system of the original game a bit. The blonde said it was an old sword they found while packing for the dorm, and they said they might as well give it to him.

So Hajime was strolling back to his room with a wooden sword on his back while torturing himself for not asking the name of the _fucking main character._

Maybe he could ask next time. He and Hajime were in the same class together, as well as Mikan, so he would have the occasion to.

As he strolled his way through the school’s garden towards the dorm, he could swear he heard some loud voices. It didn’t seem normal at all, so he strayed off the path towards the noises.

In between the bushes, he perceived a familiar bunch on white hair in a familiar green commoner coat.

MC was surrounded by some other students, both male and female, and he didn’t seem fazed at all.

One of the students, a girl, spoke up. “Don’t think you're special just because you got accepted!”

“I don’t think I’m special.” Smiled the Luckster back.

“Yeah right! You’re here just because the principal has the same magic as you! The idiot would enroll anyone that can give a nice smile and say thank you!”

He continued to smile. “It’s rude to speak like this about your own headmaster.”

One of the guys walked forward. “Who said you could talk!?”

Yeah, this was definitely bullying. Hajime hurried and stepped in, placing himself in between MC and the bullies. “Hey! Back _off!”_ While he said those words, he pulled off his best villain face. He maybe lost the long emo hair and one red eye, but a glare could have some impact at least.

The bully stepped back. “Who are you!?”

Hajime reached for the sword bag. “Someone who’s gonna kick your ass if you don’t get _the fuck_ out of my face!!”

It seemed it was enough for the girls of the group to be scared, and the guys followed them quickly.

Once they were out of sight, the brunette sighed. He forgot this was a thing in the game, the MC getting bullied for being a commoner.

And Hajime just remembered there was an event about that in the game.

Luckster would go back to his dorm but be interrupted by bullies. And the one who stopped them was another conquerable character. If his memory served right, it was a redhead painter.

Did he just accidently trample over a romance flag? Now that was a major Oops.

He cringed at himself and looked behind him, seeing MC in shock at the unexpected defense. “Are you alright? They didn’t hurt you or something right?”

The protagonist blinked and shook his head. “No I’m alright, you arrived before they could start beating me up!”

The way he was talking was like if a player was trying to answer everything with the troll response. “Well I’m glad I made it in time.”

Wait, wasn’t he beat up in the original event before getting saved?

Hajime shook the thought out of his brain. He could think about it later, right now:

“Say…” He cleared his throat. “May I ask for your name?”

“You actually want to know the name of a commoner like me?”

The noble sighed. “Come on, don’t get all self deprecative on me. And yes I am asking.”

“Well, I’m Nagito Komaeda.” He extended his hand.

The reincarnated teen took it. “Now I can properly say: Nice to meet you.”

“Same here!” The other smiled.

Hajime looked around, an idea struck him. “If someone bothers you, tell me alright? I don’t think I’m some kind of hero but I can help defend you if they get physical.”

“For someone who doesn’t think is a hero, you definitely made a heroic entrance! You acted like a knight right out of a romance novel.”

Oh if he knew how accurate that statement was.

Hajime only chuckled awkwardly. “I-I guess!” In the middle of his laugh, he noticed something. “Hum, can you let go of my hand now?”

Still not letting go, Nagito genuinely seemed shocked. “Huh? Why?”

“This is a handshake, normally you let go when it’s done?” So that protagonist was the clueless in any common social norms type.

The white haired teen just chuckled. “Right!” He gently let go of the brunette’s hand.

“So Nagito- can I call you Nagito?” Asked the brunette.

“I don’t mind.”

To make things more fair, the sword wielding teen pointed out. “In exchange you can call me by my given name too if you want!”

“Deal!”

“So Nagito, want me to walk you back to your dorm? I want to at least make sure no one else is gonna bother you today.”

“I wouldn’t be against some company!” It was crazy how much the white teen was smiling through the conversation. However it wasn’t the plastic smile he showed the bullies.

This made Hajime smile in return as he showed the other the way back to the path. “This is also my way to thank you for guiding my friend to the hall on the first day.”

On the way to the dorms, they both talked about Mikan, that Nagito had met her on the first day and met again at the Health Care Committee. They then moved on to the topics of classes and did small talk.

He was maybe a bit weird and self deprecative, but he seemed to be a good person. And accessorily, the talk about Mikan gave Hajime some valuable information. He didn’t seem to be all that interested in her in a romantic way, but he clearly apreciated her efforts to help others. While this could change, it was nice to know Mikan had made a friend.

He waved Nagito goodbye after a flight of stairs in the dorms, and Hajime went to bed very satisfied.

* * *

“Hey you!” Hajime heard someone call for him in the school halls while he was on his way to the principal's office.

He turned around to see a redhead girl in a thin white and red dress with a colorfully stained apron. “Hum… yes?”

“Come with me!” She got closer and grabbed his sleeve to pull him away.

“Huh? Wait!”

Before Hajime could object, he was sat down on the floor of the art room like a child about to be scolded by his mom.

“What’s your name?” Asked the bossy noble.

“Hum, Hajime Hinata…” He hesitantly responded. “Wh-why was I dragged here?”

She huffed and put her hands on her hips. “First off, your shirt is dirty!”

He raised an eyebrow and looked, and indeed, there was a little stain on his blue shirt. “Ah!”

“And second, I saw you yesterday!”

“Saw m-”

Then it hit him, he understood the timeline of events.

In the _normal_ timeline: Nagito, or more accurately the original MC, got bullied by the group and beat up, this girl found them and saved the Lucky Student, and a route started.

Here: Nagito was starting to get bullied by the group, Hajime stepped in and saved him before she could arrive. But here it seemed she maybe saw something for a bit? She might have walked in on them but not intervened.

The brunette breathed out: “Ooooh…” in realization.

The girl continued. “Yeah! Why did you have to menace them with your sword?”

He could feel this was going to be a headache. “For starters, it was a _wooden_ sword and I didn’t even pull it out of the bag.”

“There’s no way to know since you didn’t pull it out!”

“I didn’t need to and that was the point! I didn’t want to! It was a bluff!” He quickly slapped his hand on his mouth to stop himself from digging himself into a deeper hole, yelling was not going to solve anything.

The girl sighed heavily. “Geez! Boys immediately resort to violence for anything!”

Something crossed Hajime’s mind.

He stared at her with a little grin. “Are you sure? I’m sure you would’ve started yelling and menacing people with art tools if you were in my spot.”

She gasped and flushed.

He just described exactly what happened in the event. He couldn’t help himself.

He waved his hand, already feeling bad for his teasing. “Sorry, that was rude.”

“Yeah it was!” She turned around and sat down on a chair to sigh.

He didn’t really know what to say next. He never considered himself the best people person, he was better at part-time job interviews than trying to bond with classmates in his previous life. So all he could do was awkwardly look around the room to find a conversation topic.

His eye was caught by a painting. Most of the canvas was white, it was clearly not finished, but the top part of the painting was of multiple shades of blue, that transformed into a shade of orange like a sky in the evening.

It was tiny, but he could see the brush techniques changed as the color went on. He got up from his sitting position and walked to the canvas to take a better look. The darker blue part started with points of paint, and the more it moved towards the orange shades the more the brush would stay on the canvas and move in lines.

He felt the girl looking at him from across the room. So he confronted the stare and asked. “Did you paint this?”

She just breathed out: “Yeah.”

He went back to staring at the painting, to see if he could make out any more details.

“Why do you keep staring? It’s not even finished.”

Like stating the most obvious thing in the world, Hajime shrugged. “Because I find it pretty?”

She raised an eyebrow, clearly asking for an explanation.

He sighed through his nose and tried to word his thoughts. “It’s… well first off I like the color and shade and how it… transitions..? How it transforms into the other color.”

She too sighed and breathed out. “Stop trying to sound smart, it sounds fake and forced.” It sounded like she had some serious experience with that type of commentary.

“I was not finished.” He deadpanned. “So not only are the colors nice to look at, I can feel that the intent changed as it was painted. I could feel it from far away, but I understood better once I took a closer look at the brushes. It’s like it’s evolving. I like it a lot.”

He kept smiling at the canvas trying to discern something else and the redhead stayed silent for a few seconds.

“That’s it. You made a good comment.” She calmly stated with a hint of nervousness.

“Mh?” The reincarnated teen turned around.

The girl walked up to her painting while avoiding the other’s gaze. She took off the canvas from its holder and walked up with it to the end of the room, where there was a door that seemed to lead to a storage room.

“Hey hum…” Hajime tried to call out to her.

Before he could finish however, she continued. “I guess I could show you more of my paintings.”

He was just about to ask if he could actually see more of her works, so he smiled. “Thank you," He remembered the name signed on the canvas. "Lady Koizumi.” He wanted to try and call her by her given name like he did with Nagito but she gave off those scary bossy vibes that convinced Hajime to not play too friendly. But he did hope he could become good friends with her.

He then noticed he was starting to run late for an appointment with the headmaster. He politely excused himself as she finished to put back her painting and he opened the door to leave.

As he swung it open however, just behind it he saw none other than Mikan and Nagito.

“H-Hajime!?” Exclaimed a shocked Mikan.

“Good morning.” Calmly stated Nagito.

“Good morning!” Said back Hajime. “And as much as I would love to make small talk, I’m sorry I need to go see the principal.” He started trotting in the corridor and waved the other two goodbye. “We’ll see each other in class!”

As he hurried to the office, something slowly hit him.

Wasn’t that an event..?

A recalled a moment where Mikan wanted to show the MC the art club, as one of their classmates was a member and as new members of the Health Care Committee they needed to get familiar with both the other students and the different clubs.

Then the protagonist would notice a painting and pick a compliment that would start Lady Koizumi’s route, as she recognized him after the whole bully encounter.

He also remembered that the _original_ Hajime…

...

This was going to get confusing quickly. Hajime quickly searched for another name to refer to the original character in his head.

Izuru Kamukura. It was his cringy nickname for himself during his dumb pre-teen emo phase, and he was an asshole at that time. So it fitted perfectly.

So _Izuru_ was also the Luckster’s lead bully and was the “enemy to take down” in Lady Koizumi’s route. He got banished in that one. So that was dangerous, but better than dying.

But anyways, after seeing the painting and setting up the flag it would trigger the start of the romance of friendship route.

But _Nagito_ was the MC.

And Lady Koizumi put back the painting before Nagito entered the room.

**“SHIT!”**

* * *

As he sat down in the principal’s office, he was dejected.

He just ruined an entire route. Incredible. Great move. Good Game Hajime.

His eyes flew open in realization and he shook his head.

No. Don’t panic. This was just _one…_

This was just **_two_ ** flags (Hajime bit his lip hard in shame as he corrected himself). There was plenty more for Nagito to pick up if he wanted to. It was not completely ruined.

“Are you alright Hinata?” Asked Headmaster Naegi, clearly noticing Hajime’s distress.

The brunette snapped out of his self deprecating trance. “Oh- yes, I’m fine. Thank you for asking.”

The principal raised an eyebrow, but continued with what was the point of the appointment. “So, today I summoned you here to ask for your presence during an event.”

“What kind of event?”

Headmaster Naegi opened a drawer and pulled out a flyer. He handed it over to Hajime. “A tournament!”

Hajime chuckled awkwardly as he took the flyer in hand. “You are maybe not aware but… My magic is _really_ bad. I don't think me participating is a good idea.”

“It’s alright, I authorized both magic and sword fighting in the tournament. That’s actually why I wanted to talk to you in person.”

Before asking the obvious question, the brunette took a better look at the flyer. He knew works of art could be copied using certain types of magic, albeit not perfectly, but he recognized those brush streaks and the little signature on the corner of the paper's art. It brought a little smile to his face. The art depicted two nobles, one throwing wind magic and at the other, a swordsman.

Before Hajime could ask his question however, Naegi continued. “You are one of the rare people here who takes the time to hone their sword skills. I hoped that with the participation of talented swordsmen and swordswomen, it will encourage others into honing that set of skills as well, and broaden their horizons!”

The brunette chuckled. “Please Headmaster, my sword fighting isn’t that great, neither is it some great talent.”

The other shook his head. “I disagree. While some talents are innate and some aren’t, something someone is not good at at first but trains regularly to get better at is just as much of a valuable skill than being good at something the moment you try it. In my eyes at least.” He smiled reassuringly. “So I do think you are not only talented, but very persistent. And that’s a great quality.”

Hajime was speechless. No wonder Naegi was the mentor character of the game. Actually he scratched that, he was the _paragon._ And the power of speeches about love, friendship and hope were real.

“Th-thank you…” He could only breathe out while looking down, flattered.

“Oh and also…” The headmaster brought back Hajime’s attention with a hand mouvement. “If something is troubling you, please do not hesitate to speak up about it!”

  
Not just the speeches, the power of hope _was_ real! Makoto Naegi had truly mastered the protagonist aura.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Makoto President  
> In all seriousness, I love the idea of Makoto being the ex-protag who saw all of that shit before and Kyoko is the harem survivor who had to claw her way to the top hjdhbcd (more on her on later chapters ill try)  
> I really like Mahiru. I really do. And her FTEs with Hajime are cute as shit. So I really want to do her justice.  
> Also be prepared for a lot of gamer meta commentary jokes.  
> And Hajime is a swordsmen because Rebuttal shodown is awesome and he uses cool ass broadswords and I'll die on this hill.


	3. Tournament Arc

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The cliché Tournament Arc was just around the corner, and surprisingly, this was probably the only time Hajime could relax and not worry about his possible doom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God that chapter was way too long- hjdschbw why am I doing this to myself. You have no clue how much of a headache it was to write this. I should stop trying to write everything in one day...

All of a sudden, there were a lot more students on the magic and sword training grounds. Hajime wasn’t complaining, but it felt a bit weird to be sparing with so many people around. Fuyuhiko didn’t seem to mind, and Peko wasn’t bothered even though Hajime could bet she would prefer a calmer environment.

In between two sessions, the brunette got curious:

“Did the principal ask you to participate in the tournament too?”

The blonde wiped his face. “Yeah, I said no.”

The reincarnated teen was genuinely shocked. “Huh? Why? I was sure you were going to enjoy it!”

“Yeah I would’ve, but me and Peko got family matters that day.”

“I see. That’s too bad.”

The blonde handwaved. “Nah, I mean let’s be real, Peko would have kicked all our asses.”

Hajime looked at her while she was cleaning one of her swords. “... Yeah she really would have.”

Just thinking about it made Hajime shudder. He was glad the game’s story used a stupid plot device to prevent this nightmarish scenario from happening.

* * *

He would’ve expected himself to be a nervous wreck just before his first turn in the tournament, but he was surprisingly calm.

After all, a simple school tournament was far less scary than impending doom or fighting Peko.

Thinking of which, there was no death scenario involved with the tournament. After all, Izuru didn’t train his sword skills and his magic was too awful to participate. So Hajime could relax and enjoy the fighting to his heart’s content.

He kinda shuddered at the idea that he was probably about to step into an anime style battle, as from what fights he had seen in his younger days, and his current physical capacities that were somehow above those of normal humans, he really should expect something right out of a manga.

Since this world had magic, did that mean here humans evolved accordingly with greater fighting capabilities to fight against it? Maybe. There were a lot of surprising things about this world after all. Their teacher was a living talking rabbit doll after, an object with magic breathing life in it. He even discovered it was possible for couples to have children through magical means by combining the genetic material of the parents through magic, very nice for infertile people and same-sex couples. Apparently it was one of the things that eased said same-sex couples into society, as they were defavorized at first for not being abe to create heirs.

This world was really fascinating. He was glad he got to learn more about it everyday.

There was a knock on the door of the changing room.

“Hajime Hinata, it’s your turn!”

“Alright!” Answered the brunette.

He readjusted the white button up training shirt (that was tailored made with a bigger size by Hajime’s request thank god), pulled up the black pants and tugged on the laces of his black boots. With his personal steel sword at his hip, he exited the room towards the arena.

Yes, the school had an arena for events such as these or special training regiments, and inter-high sports tournaments or demonstrations. As the brunette walked in the arena, he heard the announcer declare his arrival and he looked around him. It was reminiscent of the Roman circus back in his world, but with some things that made it look like a modern stadium. Like the clean white of the seats and some magical holographic screens. It was crazy how this universe's magic could replace all of technology. There were a lot of spectators too, probably students that couldn’t participate, parents, family, and those that would participate at another time.

His first adversary was a member of his class: Kazuichi Soda. A very excited teen that while he was not the best in class, he seemed to get along with others pretty well. He and Hajime didn’t speak a lot, but the brunette did his research and learned he specialized in Construction Magic. It would be more accurate for Hajime to call it Tech Magic, as it basically meant that Kazuichi could create machinery like things on the fly. This could be trouble.

The other boy entered the stage and per the tournament rules, they shook hands before starting the match.

The pink haired teen seemed to be very enthusiastic about the match. “You better get ready, cuz I’m gonna give it my best shot!”

The sword wielding teen could bet this was because “Miss Sonia” was watching. Another one of Hajime’s classmates, a princess and a very nice girl. “Then I hope you don’t mind if I do!” He playfully answered, accepting the challenge.

They both took some distance from each other. As the announcer, who he now recognized, was another classmate, Ibuki Mioda, started the countdown.

Hajime thought he should keep an eye on her too, as his memory about the tournament arc was foggy, but he could swear she was a route in the game too.

The brunette slowly unsheathed his sword and the other teen took a stance.

Lady Mioda excitedly shouted a “Go!” and both teens started to move.

Since all Hajime had was a sword, he obviously needed to get up close and personal to inflict any real damage. So he started running towards his adversary.

Kazuichi responded accordingly, as he built some kind of suit made out of the ground's dirt. It somewhat looked like a machine from a steampunk setting in Hajime’s opinion.

The mecha of dirt raised its arms and hit the ground, sending a shockwave along it. Hajime dodged it with a jump at the right timing, and as the machine recovered from its strike, the swordsman jumped on its arms slowly lifting up from the floor.

Kazuichi was on the machine's shoulder, which gave the brunette the perfect occasion for a strong strike. The pink haired teen didn’t expect his sudden appearance, so he did not react in time when Hajime kicked him off his mecha.

With the magician flying through the air, he tried to protect himself with some dirt. However, the brunette was right on his trail and as soon as the other teen hit the ground, the sword weilding teen could use his weapon to brutally slash the creations off of Kazuichi.

The pink haired noble kept stumbling backwards while trying to protect himself with more and more magic while Hajime got rid of them with precise sword strikes everytime a new one would appear.

Peko mentioned to Hajime that him being left-handed held quite a bit of an advantage as most enemies expect a right-handed adversary, and it took quite a bit of time to get used to defending and expecting hits from the other side.

He wasn’t going to let Kazuichi adapt however. He kept his strikes precise and brutal, it was starting to wear on his arms, but he knew his enemy’s balance would be the one to fall first.

Sure enough, the pink haired magician finally fell backwards, not being able to keep up, and Hajime held the tip of his sword under his throat. A few seconds flew by as the dust settled and Lady Mioda signaled the end of the match.

As the crowd cheered, Hajime sighed and sheathed his sword. He extended a hand to Kazuichi who was still a bit shocked. The shock quickly transformed into awe as he got up with Hajime’s help. “Dude that was awesome! How you just jumped like that- and then you just started attacking- you’re a savage man!”

Savage was a surprisingly accurate word for his Attack!Attack!Attack! strategy. “Thanks, you did good too. Getting hit by your magic would’ve seriously hurt.”

The other teen laughed and wrapped his arm around Hajime’s shoulder. The brunette was unprepared for the sudden friendliness and made a bit of a weird noise at the contact, but Kazuichi ignored it. “You gotta teach me your ways man! That looks way too cool!”

“Hum… sure?” What did he just agree to?

“Awesome!”

* * *

They were now both in the infirmary, as to heal any potential wounds they could have for the next rounds.

Mikan immediately rushed to Hajime to check on his arms, as swinging a steel sword with such cadence as he did could put a strain on his muscles, even if he was reincarnated into a world with stronger humans.

The clumsy girl used healing magic on his limbs. “I think it’s been a bit too long since you’ve used a heavier sword, so it will take a bit of time for your arms to adapt. Don’t put too much weight on one of them too long too.”

She sounded much more confident when she was healing people, and Hajime heeded her advice.

“And don’t forget to breathe correctly, don’t hyperventilate if you start to get aggressive. The quick mouvements accelerate the heartbeat which makes the lungs pump more air, it can tire you really quickly if you don’t pay enough attention. So don’t forget to take a breather if necessary.”

“Gotcha.”

“Oh and, did you sharpen your sword?”

“Not yet, but I was going to do it after your examination.”

“Th-then… hum…” Mikan let go of Hajime’s arm and searched in her pocket. She pulled out what looked like a cross between a bandage and a ribbon, it was of a fiery red. “Wrap this a-around the handle. It should help you get a better grip. A-at least the time your arm gets used to it.”

Hajime took the ribbon in hand. It was soft, but a bit sticky to the hand. “Thank you, this will come in handy. I’ll take good care of it.” Was this more of the game’s gift system? He didn’t know why, but the way Mikan was so nice to him made him a bit uneasy. Sure they were on good terms and long time friends, but he still felt bad for the years where he treated her badly. Well it wasn’t really him, it was Izuru and then Hajime reincarnated onto him when he was 7. It was still years of bullying. Something about receiving her gifts like this just didn’t feel right with him. He should talk about it with her later.

However him accepting the ribbon seemed to have made her happy at the very least. Maybe this was reason enough to accept.

* * *

He sharpened his weapon with a whetstone after Mikan finished with him. He was taught how to do it by Peko, and he remembered some sharpening trivia knowledge from his previous life.

He paused to reapply some oil on the whetstone when Kazuichi walked in, looking a bit surprised. “Hey Hajime?”

Oh so he was the Let’s Move Directly To Given Names type. “What is it?”

He looked around and got closer to almost whisper in the brunette’s ear. “Are you and Mikan like… a thing?”

The bottle of oil almost slipped from the brunette’s fingers from the shock of the question. “Huh!? No! Why do you even ask!?”

“You guys  _ aren’t!?  _ I was  _ sure _ you were.”

This started to trigger Hajime’s memory. He could start to recall the character.

Right, Kazuichi was the comic relief of the game, a bit of the loser archetype but a “bro friend” of the MC that helped out on numerous occasions. He was the one that instigated most of The Girl Talk.

“Why were you so sure..?”

“I mean, she’s kinda all over you man.”

Hajime was dumbfounded for a few seconds and almost laughed. “Of course not.” He went back to sharpening his sword, admiring the steel edges glistening in the oil. “She likes attention, I get why she comes across like that, I guess she is a bit clingy. But not in a bad way.”

The pink haired teen looked at the weapon trinkle in oil. “I smell some history.”

“Well kinda… She’s hum...” He hesitated in clarifying, as it was really embarrassing, but it was better to avoid any misunderstanding. “She’s my ex-fiancee.”

He could already tell Kazuichi was about to make a scene so Hajime put his hand in front of the other’s face.

“Before you start freaking out let me clarify!” Hajime cleared his throat. “It was an arranged marriage set up by our parents when we were kids. I eventually wanted to break it up and Mikan agreed. We were around… 9? 10? Anyways, it's history. We kept in contact and I guess you could call us childhood friends.”

He could just feel the other about to make a remark.

“And that’s  **IT.”** The brunette added for good measure.

Then silence followed for a moment. Kazuichi taking in the information.

The pink haired teen decided to jump onto another subject. “So, what are you doing?”

“Sharpening my sword. What, you were never taught?”

He scratched his cheek. “Well not really.”

It was probably why he was so impressed by Hajime’s swordsmanship. His family must've been on the more magical side of things. “Had more… magical parents?”

“I guess? The fam has a lot of money problems, I mean if it weren’t for the title we might as well be commoners! So we could never pay tutors and stuff. ”

This greatly picked Hajime’s curiosity. “Self taught magic?”

He took a pose to show off. “Yep! I was lucky to be born with a lot of it! So I would make stuff out of dirt or wood…”

“You’re lucky, my magic is trash.” After finishing with the whetstone, the swordsmen ran sandpaper up the blade.

Kazuichi sat down next to him. “What’s your magic?”

“Hum…” It was a bit complicated to explain, especially because of the weird form it took.

Izuru apparently had close to no magic, and it was something that looked like a black tentacule (Hajime had an idea why it was a tentacule of all things and he was  _ glad _ Chiaki never talked about  _ those _ bonus CGs). But ever since Hajime hopped into his body the nature of the magic changed.

“It… It takes the form of a projectile I can shoot out of my hand like…” Hajime made a fingergun with his left hand. He obviously couldn’t call it that way however, as guns do not yet exist in this world. “...this. And the projectile isn’t physical, it directly attacks mentally, it messes up concentration.”

“Dude, that sounds awesome!”

“Wait, here comes the bad part. This isn't physical, so I can’t destroy stuff with it. And it only works if the enemy is  _ talking. _ It apparently  _ really _ hurts when I do it while they tell a lie or a contradiction. And it’s actually soothing if I do it on something I agree on.”

“That’s…”

“Yeah, that’s _very_ situational. And even worse: I can only manage to send a bul-  _ projectile _ once per day. I’m training to be able to do it more, but I have so low magic it’s really hard…”

“That sucks… How is your magic called?”

“Huh…” He remembered back when his magic was reidentified. To identify the magic of a newborn the parents would use an artefact that would name the magic. Problem with his, no one knew what it meant but him. “It’s called Truth Bullet Magic.”

Kazuichi raised an eyebrow. “What’s “bullet”?”

Hajime knew what it was of course, he could only guess the magic was influenced by him coming from another world somehow. “That’s the name of the projectile. The magic shoots bullets.”

The pink haired noble scratched his hair in confusion. “How do you know that?”

Hajime could just feel sweat rolling down his neck. “I just… do?”

Kazuichi was suspicious for a bit before shrugging. “Ya know what? Fair. It’s like how I instinctively knew how to make stuff.”

The brunette let out a subtle sigh of relief through his nose. He had to explain his magic a lot of course, but he couldn’t help but feel nervous every time he did it.

The other teen tapped his shoulder. “Hey how about this, in exchange for you teaching me the sword, I teach you some magic!”

“Deal.”

* * *

His next opponent was another classmate: Gundham Tanaka. It was hard not to know him as he was… bombastic to say the least and a fan of grandiose theatrics. He also made a lot of noise by being enrolled here, as there was apparently a lot of drama around his birth conditions and family. Complicated noble politics. He specialized in Animal Spirit Magic, which allowed him to summon animal-like spirits. They called it spirits, but it was more like almost intangible masses of magic acting like animals.

Hajime entered the arena with a cheer and an exclamation from Lady Mioda, and Tanaka entered with his own personal theatrics were he even presented his four hamsters (not spirits,  _ actual _ hamsters): the Four Dark Devas of Destruction.

They both walked to each other and shook hands.

Master Tanaka (Hajime thought it was maybe better to refer to him with the full title) laughed: “You fool will regret having picked a fight with me!”

Hajime tightened his grip on Gundham’s hand. “Oh we’ll see who is the real fool.”

Tanaka gripped back and their encounter dissolved into a gripping endurance run for a bit before Lady Mioda told them to go to their positions.

As she yelled “Go!”, Hajime started running towards the other, who was already summoning magic.

“Come, mighty Thunder Beast!” Magic took the form of a transparent yellow tiger that took off towards Hajime. The brunette stopped running to let it come, waiting for just the right timing.

The tiger approached him and jumped towards him, this was his cue as he jumped towards the magic beast and slashed it in one fell swoop with his sword, making it disappear. He then continued his run.

The pattern repeated with other kinds of animals, a dolphin, a lion, a lizard… Until the brunette finally got up to Master Tanaka’s face. He was about to kick him like he did with Kazuichi, but the breeder manifested magic around himself, enveloping his hands in transparent beastly claws which slashed Hajime’s leg.

He let out a pained cry and the crowd gasped. He quickly recovered as he felt another attack coming and he jumped away with some difficulty.

The other teen was maniacally laughing. “Behold! The Claws of Chaos! I shall end you and shatter your Truth Blade!”

Hajime had to admit, in between the silly names, Truth Blade actually sounded really cool. “Well…” Might as well play along he thought. “Let us see which is the strongest!”

Then ensued a plethora of slashes at close quarter combat. The claws contained too much magic to be slashed effectively, as the magic made it tougher. However, the claws couldn’t shatter steel either, so the two exchanged parries and often managed to get hits in sometimes. The blade almost bouncing on Tanaka’s claws almost made it slip out of Hajime’s hand if it wasn't for Mikan’s gift. He internally thanked her for the help.

By the end, the both took some distance from each other, panting and tired, with cuts on their faces, arms and legs.

A bell sounded through the arena. Lady Mioda announced that since the fight was dragging out, and it was clearly a tie, they needed to solve this another way.

Out of one of the arena’s doors appeared their plushie rabbit teacher Usami. She bowed to the both of them and poked her magic stick on the ground. A rock at the level of the table erupted from the floor.

Turned out they were going to finish this with arm-wrestling. Both participants kneeled on the ground on each side of the stone and gripped each other’s hand. Because of Hajime’s left handed-ness, they used their left hand and in exchange for not using his dominant hand, Tanake received a slight boost via magic.

As Usami gave the signal, both teens gave all they could in their arms. They were both tired from the fighting, Hajime from swinging his sword and Master Tanaka from blocking and pouring out so much magic.

However, Hajime was clearly more used to it than the other, and had none of the mental exhaustion from overusing magic. So while at first neither of them budged, the odds shifted in the brunette’s favor, and he slowly started to gain grounds. Tanaka tried to struggle but he was clearly too tired mentally to concentrate his strength properly, and Hajime won with a scream full of adrenaline.

The crowd cheered as the winner was declared. Hajime didn’t have the strength to get up and receive the crowd’s applause however. So he collapsed on the rock table instead.

* * *

He came back to the world of the conscious and the first thing he saw was a Mikan in tears.

“Hajime!”

“Hi.” He breathed out. Feeling tired, but better.

“Are you alright? Are you hurting somewhere?”

“I’m tired, but I’m fine. I feel pretty good actually.”

She sighed in relief. “You were covered in cuts, I-I healed them and patched others up, but I was scared the magic healing was tiring your body…”

He waved his hand. “I said I’m fine, don’t worry.” He looked around, he was at the arena’s infirmary. In a bed a bit far away, was Master Tanaka, sound asleep. “Oh by the way, Mikan…”

“Yes?”

“Your ribbon came in handy, thanks again for giving it to me.”

She nervously fidgeted. “It’s hum… I’m happy it helped.”

This reminded the brunette of something. “Mikan? Can I talk about something?”

“W-what is it?”

He took a deep breath. He needed to tackle this with delicacy. Mikan was the archetype to freak out at everything, so it was necessary for him to clarify everything very clearly. “See Mikan, I wanted to say that… I appreciate your gifts and everything you do for me, I really do! Just… I want to say that you shouldn’t feel  _ forced _ to do it for me. You don’t owe me anything, actually  _ I _ owe  _ you! _ I… I treated you badly for a long time as kids… I’m your ex-bully. You don’t need to be nice to me if you don’t want to.”

Mikan stayed silent.

Hajime was immediately terrified he offended her or made her sad. “It’s- Like I said- I really appreciate what you do for me, it’s- it’s just how I feel and I want to be honest with you! And you’re still a really important friend to me!”

“It’s… n-not that.” She murmured. She slowly looked at Hajime. “I-I don’t feel forced to do it!” She was a bit flustered and she held her hands to her chest while biting her lip. “It-it’s true w-we were on a… bad t-terms for a while but you r-really helped me even after the… the i-incident! I couldn’t remember the last time I m-made a friend… So…” She took a deep breath and almost yelled: “I do it because I want to!!”

Hajime was honestly shocked, but in a good way. It felt great to have his doubts cleared and be reassured, it also made him feel warm inside to know she truly cared about him, and didn’t do it out of some type of obligation, and he was very proud of her for managing to say all of this out loud.

He smiled at her. “Thanks for reassuring me.” He put his hand on her head and rubbed. He knew it was a thing for little kids, but it felt like the right amount of physical comfort for her. Hajime wasn’t good at showing affection, so his voice was a little shaky. “It makes me happy you care about me like that. I’m huh…” He could feel his hand on Mikan’s head shaking too, he was a bit scared he was coming across as too weird. “I’m grateful and I want you to know that.” Even though he repeated it multiple times, he really wanted to make sure he got this point across.

She giggled and blushed. She didn’t seem to find it weird and it made her happy, that made Hajime let out a sigh of relief.

“You dares awoke me from my slumber!?” They heard screaming from across the room. This made them both jump and look in the direction of the voice. Master Tanaka, indeed awake, was checking around. Probably for his pets just before his Four Dark Devas jumped on him.

At the same time, there was a voice outside asking for Mikan. Probably one of the nurses.

“I-I have to go.” She got up from the chair next to the bed and almost tripped on her way out. She waved Hajime goodbye and he waved back before she left.

The swordsman sat back and relaxed into the bed. It felt good to let it out and not have it end up with someone in tears like when they were kids.

Although, it’s been awhile since he was reminded of the incident.

It was the day he jumped into Izuru’s body. He didn’t know what happened though. Apparently he was playing with Mikan, and he got in an accident falling down the stairs. He gave his parents and Mikan the scare of their lives. Since he didn’t remember anything about what happened before that, including his entire life, it made his parents believe he had amnesia and he had to relearn everything about this world.

It was mostly thanks to his hyperactive overworking trait that he was able to academically catch up. It was tough times, but Mikan, Fuyuhiko and Peko really helped him out and gave him support, so it wasn’t all bad.

From the bed on the other side, Tanaka laughed. “It has been decided! My Claws of Chaos and your Truth Blade stands as equals.” He struck a pose how he could. “You are a worthy opponent! One day, we shall clash again and truly see who comes out on top!” He kept laughing.

Hajime let out a confused smile “Glad to have your… seal of approval.”

“Seal indeed! Our  _ fate _ is sealed! It is written in the stars of destiny that we shall fight again!”

“I’m not against a rematch I guess.”

* * *

Making it to the finals, Hajime ended up face to face against an unexpected adversary.

In the arena, he was shaking hands with none other than Nagito, who had won his fights on his sides with the power of luck.

Hajime didn’t keep himself updated like an idiot because he tried to relax in the tournament, making him completely forget about the protagonist of the impending doom over his head.

Now he was against the said protagonist of his doom.

Nagito smiled. “I’ll wish you luck.”

Hajime laughed. “Keep it for yourself, you’re gonna need it!”

The other chuckled back, and the both walked to their positions.

Hajime was nervous. Very nervous. For multiple reasons.

The first was the luck magic.

Luck magic was simple: It was random. When used, it would cause a random magic to activate. However, since magic was so broad, no one knew what was going to come down, including the one throwing out the spells.

This was one of their greatest strengths, this inpredictability. Lots of searchers wanted to look into Luck Magic, maybe trying to find a pattern to its unpredictability. Because it existed!

Each owner of Luck magic could discern some kind of pattern to their luck. But it was shaky, and there was still no telling what it was going to do next.

At least, thanks to the original game, Hajime knew what kind of luck he was up against.

The MC’s luck was like a metronome. Either huge amounts of good luck, or huge amounts of bad luck. And that was extremely scary. Maybe it would cause a tiny earthquake, or make a meteor fall down. Who knew?

However there was one thing one needed to cast the magic: Inner focus. Distractions are the caster’s worst enemy. Luck magic couldn’t be used instinctively, the caster needed to be giving the casting their full attention.

And the second thing Hajime was scared of: Nagito himself.

Not in a literal sense, he was a nice chill guy and a good friend, but he didn’t know who he  _ became _ once behind the wheels of magic. What kind of techinque did he had and the like.

Also there was the slight possibility he would die. There was no event with the rival during the tournament, but still.

Hajime was going off the rails, so maybe there was a hidden route where the rival was in the tournament?

He slapped himself lightly. No of course not. Chiaki was a thorough gamer. She would’ve told him if there was.

If he ever met her again in another life, he’ll have to thank her. He at least sent her his blessings from across the parallel universes.

They both arrived at their designated spots, the brunette unsheathed his sword and took a stance.

Lady Mioda gave her “Go!” signal, and Hajime did like he always did, he ran towards his target. He could see the white haired teen smile at Hajime for his predictable move, and he closed his eyes and snapped his fingers.

The ground started shaking under Hajime and the floor beneath him became a rectangular pillar of dirt where he stood on top. He jumped off for more pillars to appear left and right. Some kind of Earth Magic. This made mouvements much harder, but he just needed to platform his way through the pillars. Nagito snapped his fingers again, and Hajime heard lightning, but instead of thunder falling down, above appeared a thunderstorm that instantly started raining rivers. It wouldn’t have been a problem if it didn’t make the ground slippery, and Hajime quickly fell from one of the earth pillars.

He stopped his fall by planting his sword against a pillar and using it to get back on the high ground. He was thankful once again for Mikan’s gift that kept his hand from slipping off the handle.

He heard the sound of finger snapping again while he was climbing and he heard an explosion. He turned his head to see what happened, all he saw was Nagito on the ground, with a good chunk of his shirt burned and covered in ashes.

“Well that was bound to happen!” The protagonist chuckled as he got up with some trouble and slapped the ashes away off of him.

It almost made the brunette laugh as he finally made it up the pillar. Just in time for Nagito to snap his fingers again.

Blades of wind formed around the pale commoner, and they flew towards his enemy. Hajime didn’t expect their velocity however, and while he managed to slash some away, he was hit, and now had cuts on his limbs and on his clothing.

Nagito kept staring at him, awaiting Hajime’s next move. The brunette tried to think up one, but moving on wet torn clothing was not ideal.

So, even if he tried to actively avoiding this turn of events, he found that he didn’t have any choice. He cringed and bit his lip, gripped his torned up shirt, and ripped it away from himself, exposing himself in front of the entire school.

He was so internally embarrassed, he swore to win this one for the sake of saving some of his dignity. He told himself that at least he still had his pants on.

He could hear noises from the crowd but he honestly couldn’t care less. He was going to take this win. He took advantage of the rain and used it to slip on the side of the pillar right towards Nagito, who looked flabbergasted and was a bit too red for comfort. Hajime thought that he probably caught a cold in the rain.

The white haired teen snapped his fingers, and the swordsman expected another flood of magic.

But instead, nothing.

Hajime didn’t know what was distracting Nagito but he didn’t complan. He ran towards him, and once close enough, he knocked him over and pinned him on the ground by sitting on his lower stomach. Hajime used both his hands to hold his blade beneath Nagito’s chin, as the Lucky Student was defenselessly sprawled on the ground.

Hajime panted from running and glared right at Nagito’s face from behind his sword. The adrenaline was making him a bit dizzy, and he was probably just as red as the other teen from the rain’s cold.

After a few seconds, Lady Mioda declared the end of the match and the crowd cheered. Nagito simply started applauding with a smile. Hajime put his blade aside and sighed in relief as he fell off Nagito, exhausted.

“Damn, Luck Magic is broken…” He breathed out.

“It is rather unpredictable.” Stated the other teen, lifting himself up to look at Hajime. “Thank you for the good fight.” He extended his hand.

Hajime took it with a smile. “Thank you too.”

“Also Hajime…”

“What?”

A trickle of blood fell from Nagito’s nose.

Hajime gasped. “Oh  _ crap- _ are you alright!?”

“Well...” Nagito pointed towards the brunette. “Hajime, you should cover yourself.”

The information of his half nakedness went up to his brain and Hajime gasped and hid himself. _“Dammit_ **I am** ** _not okay with this running gag!”_**

He also thought that Nagito might have a really bad case of internal bleeding, as the blood was starting to pour a bit too much for comfort...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is what we call: _Distracted By The Sexy_  
>  What 's the hardest thing here is to plan the characters backstory and how their “romance route” is going to go. I swear I’m getting a bit of a headache! My personal notes were never this long before! And believe me, the mess as only just begun...  
>  _Geez my headaches is so bad_ also yeah, anime clichés. This is a world from a dating sim what did you expect? jdfbhcdj  
> Yeah Hajime's magic is the truth bullet mechanic. I don't exactly know what to do with it, but I'm at last putting it out there so you guys know.  
> I hope you enjoyed!


	4. Hidden Depths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The tournament is over, and Hajime gets some more attention thanks to his win.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok I admit, I feel like this chapter is a bit weak... I dunno if I just felt bad or something but I just feel like I dropped the thing in quality all of a sudden djcnsbhdfj  
> I hope it's just me or that it doesn't bother you guys. I hope you enjoy tho!

He kind of regretted winning this tournament, as his memory reminded him that the protagonist was supposed to be the winner, and that winning apparently kicked off an event. His memory was a bit foggy as he was packing his furniture after Usami signaled the end of class, and his brain was still trying to wrap his head around this world’s politics.

The time he finished everyone had already left. Nagito and Mikan had work for them in the Health Care Committee and waved him goodbye, Kazuichi and Master Tanaka were off to apparently hang out with Lady Nevermind, and the rest seemed to have their own business to attend to.

He laid back in his chair, he could feel a headache coming up. When was the next event again? Were the memories of his previous life starting to fade away? He found himself too young for memory loss. During the tournament he recalled thinking he should keep an eye on Ibuki Mioda, so that could be his order of business for now.

“Hajime~!” He heard a girl behind him.

Before he could turn around however, he felt hands grabbing his upper body from behind.

And he reacted like anyone would in this situation.

Screaming.

Next thing he knew he was panting in fear in the corner of the room trying to save his dignity. Right before him was Lady Mioda, laughing and jumping in place like a kid. “I had such a great reaction!”

“Wh-wh-..!” The brunette couldn’t even manage to speak a sentence.

“It’s the first time I do that on a guy! It was a nice change! Ibuki needs to change targets more often!”

Oh god she was the genki groping girl.

She playfully winked. “You should feel proud! You’re the first dude I met with knockers that huge!”

 _“Please stop..!”_ Pleaded the brunette, dying of embarrassment.

His memory was being triggered again. Ibuki Mioda, the genki musician girl of the group. Energetic but weirdly wise, who was also, as Hajime witnessed and has been victim to, the main instigator of fanservice scenes, thanks to her pretty obvious raging bisexuality.

As a fellow bisexual Hajime still found that no excuse for surprise groping, but he wasn’t in a position to criticize anime tropes.

She bounced her way to him and extended her hand to help him up. “Ok! I’ll stop for now!”

“For now..?” He murmured as he got up.

“Yep! Because now you’re going to play with Ibuki!”

“I’m… what?” This girl went too fast for Hajime’s brain.

She put her hands on her hips and smiled. "Period is over! It’s playtime! And you should play with me!”

“Why do you even th-” Before he could finish she was already pulling him away by the sleeve, giving him instances of déjà-vu.

Next thing he knew he was in the school garden playing tag.

“Come on! Come catch me!” Ibuki (she made it clear she was on first name basis) waved her hands enthusiastically while she was running away. This was probably why her dress was shorter than the others.

As she disappeared in the distance, Hajime had no words to describe how confused he was. Why was Ibuki so enthusiastic to play with him? Was it just in her personality?

Wait. He remembered something.

This was why the protagonist would trigger an event by ending in first place! Getting first place meant Ibuki would come to them and be able to trigger her route!

Once again, Hajime accidently trampled over a flag. He facepalmed hard and sent a telepathic excuse to Nagito for breaking his flag. But like with Lady Koizumi, there were probably plenty of other flags for him to take. After all, he spent plenty of time with Mikan in the Health Care room, he probably triggered lots of flags with her at this point.

Even if Hajime was trampling over some things left and right, that didn’t mean everything for Nagito was ruined. Right?

What would even happen if Nagito didn’t hook up with anyone at the end? It would technically mean he got the friendship ending, but this being a dating sim game, getting a friendship ending translated as a bad ending for lots of fans. And wouldn’t he prefer getting a romance ending? What would he want in the first place? And Izuru still got banished and killed in plenty of friendship routes.

Was it right for Hajime to do this? For him to interfere? For him to take his own decisions? Of course it wasn’t right to ruin moments meant for Nagito, _he_ was the protagonist. Hajime was the one that should stand aside. But would that lead him to die? He just wanted to live! He was trying to live a happy life, was this world as a whole rejecting him? Was it punishment? He wasn’t allowed to make friends? Wasn’t allowed a happy ending?

What was the right course of action? Could he even do something?

He felt fear growing in his gut, like a weight it pulled him to the ground. He held his head in his hand, feeling like his brain was pulsing. The thoughts were circling in his head like a tornado, he was starting to lose his grip on his surroundings. His view started to get dark and he vaguely felt his knees hit the ground. He was too deep in the currents of fear to try and get a hold of his erratic breathing.

He needed to breathe, something to anchor him back to reality, something to keep him from fainting, he didn’t want to knock himself out, it wasn’t time for that, there was an event happening!

He felt a hand going through his hair. He didn’t know what it was and he didn’t care, he decided to focus on the sensation, the fingers and ruffles, that would give him something else to think about. He started to time his breathing to the mouvements, and he slowly turned his head to see the owner of the hand.

Ibuki was sitting next to him. “You don’t need to be scared! There’s no bad guy around!”

Yes there was. He was the bad guy.

The thought made him want to cry.

But he couldn’t cry, he bit his lip and held it in. It was no time to be a weakling.

Ibuki kept petting his head. “Hey Hajime, what’s your favorite game? Jumping rope? Climbing trees? Earth Fire Water? If you don’t like tag, we can play something else! As long as you play and have fun!” She searched for something in her pocket, and pulled out a tissue. “That’s why playing after period is important!” She put the tissue on his nose, subtly asking him to blow it.

He was too tired emotionally to think and did as he was subtly asked. He felt Ibuki pat on his back.

“Oh I know! We’ll tell each other funny stories, and when we laugh we have to run around the whole garden!”

He pushed the thoughts away, he swallowed a hiccup and looked at Ibuki in the eyes.

She could tell. She could tell he had a whole bunch on his mind. This was what the fans meant by "weirdly wise". That was probably why she wanted to play with him so badly.

He mumbled: “Ok.”

“Yay! Ibuki will start!”

She told stories about the other members of the class, like one time someone stole Akane Owari’s snack and it turned out it was just on another table, or when Nagito accidently blew up part of the magic lab.

Hajime ended up chuckling, so they both ran around the garden while Ibuki was showing some places like a guide.

He felt like he was being dragged around a bit, but it was nice to get his mind off things.

By the end he was exhausted, but he felt like a weight was pulled off his shoulders. Ibuki was tired too, they were both sprawled on the ground.

“Hey, Ibuki?”

“What is it?” She playfully asked.

He smiled. “Thanks. That… that wasn’t so bad.”

She waved her limbs around. "Yahoo~! Success!”

Hajime looked at the sky, it was of a clear orange, and oddly soothing. He never played with other kids in his previous life. He would always study instead, or be productive alone. He didn’t know playing was this mind cleansing. But now he was aware of that.

And he was pretty sure it was Ibuki’s objective from the start.

He wouldn’t mind playing with her again.

* * *

The next day he found the tournament pamphlet deep within his case. Right, he wanted to see Lady Koizumi about it.

Not to criticize or anything, he just liked it and he wanted to tell her.

Since they were in the same class, after periods he came to her.

He waved his other friends goodbye and turned to her. He knew she could be a bit snappy with men, so he tried to be as polite as he could. He cleared his throat. “Lady Koizumi?”

She just finished packing her stuff into her case. “What is it?”

“Well…” He fished the pamphlet out of his pocket. “I saw your art for the tournament, and I just wanted to say I really liked it.”

He kinda regretted saying it afterwards, he remembered she disliked insincere sounding compliments, and maybe he was just bothering her. But he really liked the look of the art, especially the wind effects, as he got a first taste of wind magic, courtesy of Nagito’s luck.

“Oh. Hum thanks.” She looked at the flyer in his hand. “Oh right, actually I wanted to ask you something.”

“What is it?”

“Come with me.” She simply added, and she started to walk out of the classroom while waving her hand, a clear signal for Hajime to come with her.

He shrugged and followed her.

They ended up in the art room, and Lady Koizumi put an apron on. She waved at Hajime “Hey, can you sit over there?”

“Hum… sure?” He did as he was told and sat on one of the stools.

She went into the storage room and came back with a notebook in hand and a pencil. She dragged a stool in front of Hajime and sat, looking at him before scribbling on the pages.

He awkwardly looked around, feeling embarrassed. “What are you doing?”

“Sketches. You won the tournament right?”

“Yes?”

“Then you know that we gotta paint the portrait of the winner right?”

No he didn’t.

And he realized this was yet another event that Nagito could have had if he won, and another one Hajime was accidently tampering with. Great.

“Don’t make that annoyed face, it ruins it.”

“Telling me that will only annoy me even more you know.”

This seemed to have caught her off guard. “I… I guess.”

Hajime felt like he was about to step on a landmine but he decided to confront the problem directly. “You don’t need to be this bossy and mean.” Ready for blow up in 3… 2… 1…

Instead she just huffed. “Yes I do.”

Oh. He smelled backstory. “Why is that? If I can ask that is.”

“Someone needs to put their foot on the ground! If I don’t then they’ll just do whatever they want!”

With her obvious disdain for the opposite gender, it was easy to guess who she was talking about. “Nobles bother you a lot huh? Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.”

She waved her hand. “It’s fine. I’m used to it, it only gets really awful when they try to butter me up for commissions.”

She was a talented painter, it was no shock she did commissions. Hajime was still curious though. “Say, is the painting I saw, the one you were working on, a commission too?”

She stopped scribbling on the page. “Oh that…”

Maybe _now_ he stepped on the ladmine. “Oh, sorry...”

She went back to drawing. “No it’s... It’s a little experiment.”

“What kind?”

“I mostly drew scenery and the like… But recently I wanted to try and draw people too.” She let out a smile. “Used to draw a lot of people as a kid, but I stopped for a long time, apparently environments were the new trend for nobles.”

There were people in the pamphlet, so she already tried her hand again at her old style. “That’s good that you do what you want again. I don’t think I could handle having to do what people tell me all the time. That’s pretty amazing.” Hajime could admit he was a bit of a goody two shoes when it came to school, but he was positive if someone would keep telling him what to do about his personal activities that would turn him insane. He respected Lady Koizumi’s professionalism.

She didn’t seem to expect the compliment, and slightly hid her face behind her papers. “C-come on… I still need to perfect my technique, I need to find subjects to paint.”

A lighting of genius struck Hajime. The perfect occasion to get the events back on track!

“I have an idea!” He tried to pull off his best business smile. “Say, how about you draw our classmates?”

She looked at him, looking like he picked her curiosity.

“How about…” He faked being lost in thought. “Nagito? Maybe?”

For Hajime’s surprise, she very quickly dismissed the idea. “No, He’s interesting in terms of colors but…” She hid behind her pages again. “I want to try with… hum… a simpler subject first.”

Oh. Well that went out the window.

He tried to save it however. “But wouldn’t a simple subject make it too… dull?”

She started scribbling harder on her notebook. “N-not too simple although, they are still pretty! And they have that one special thing about them…”

He raised an eyebrow. “Which is?”

“The eyes! They're… really nice. They're very unique.”

In his personal opinion he thought Nagito had nice eyes. He didn’t remember ever seeing grey eyes. But well, in this world people can be born with hair like Ibuki’s so maybe he just wasn’t very aware of the standard.

She muttered under her breath. “Kinda wished they would smile more often though…”

He could hear the word “smile” but he didn’t catch the rest of her sentence. “Smile? Who?”

She seemed to be flustered for some reason and she awkwardly chuckled. “Oh well… I wanted to paint smiling people. My mother used to do it a lot so…”

Hajime guessed she must feel awkward from talking to him about something personal, so he decided not to dig deeper. He already learned enough about her for the day, he would let her open up when she wanted, so he just gave a little gentle grin in response

This made her hid again like she was trying to disappear behind her notepad while scribbling even louder on it.

The way she acted and her unusual shade made Hajime worry. He was about to ask her what was wrong, but someone opened the door.

“Big sis!” Lady Saionji entered the room.

The sudden appearance of a new person made her jump a bit. “Oh! Hiyoko! Did you need something?”

Still just by the door, she said from across the room. “Yeah! I wanted to show you something, I found a place full of traditional sweets! It’s about to close for the day so…”

“Sure I’ll come!” She turned to Hajime. “I'll have to ask you to come again. I need to finish my sketches for your portrait. So you better come alright?”

Her bossy behavior made him shrink back on the stool a little bit. “Yeah I’ll come.”

She searched for her case and put her apron back in a corner of the room. She shoved the notebook in said case and bowed Hajime goodbye. He bowed back and she left.

Lady Saionji looked back and forth between the two and turned to the brunette. “What? Wanna come too?”

He shook his head. “No it’s alright. Have a good time.”

The small teen shrugged and left the room.

* * *

Hajime spent some time wandering in the hallways, trying to find something to do. That was a habit he never got rid of, walking or running all over the place until he had an idea of an activity.

As he walked through the halls however he could feel people staring at him. He prefered to ignore them, he was probably getting attention because of the tournament.

He finally had an idea of what to do, he decided to visit the Health Care Room. Maybe he could find Mikan or Nagito there. However if he interrupted something in between them he would leave quietly.

He arrived in front of the thick wooden door and knocked. From inside, he recognized the suave voice:

“Come in!” So Nagito was inside.

The swordsman gently opened the door. “Hello Nagito.”

The Luckster was sitting with a cup of tea, a tea set on the table at the center of the room. The light coming through the window was reflecting on his pale skin and white hair in an aesthetically pleasing way. Hajime didn’t get why Lady Koizumi refused to paint him. He seemed like a great subject, was his protagonist aura failing him or something? He put his cup down and greeted the brunette. “Hello Hajime. What brings you here?”

The other teen entered, looked around, and it seemed like Mikan wasn’t here. “No particular reason, I just wanted to greet you.”

“How thoughtful!” He slowly got up. “Do you want some tea?”

“If that’s not too much to ask.” Hajime sat down.

Nagito took a cup and tried pouring the warm liquid inside, but it seemed the tea-pot was empty. He chuckled. “What perfect timing.”

“I’ll help you make you make some more.” The noble started to get up from his chair, but Nagito held out his hand in a signal for him to not bother.

“It’s alright, I’ll do it myself. Take it as my reward for winning against me!”

Hajime sat back down. “If you insist I guess.”

The white haired teen walked to another door in the room with the tea set on a trail.

Before the swordsman could watch Nagito disappear behind said door, he noticed something on the floor near the other’s feet. Feeling a catastrophe in coming, he quickly hurried to Nagito, who was already tripping on the object which appeared to be a fallen box of medical utensils.

“Look out!” It was a bit too late to say that, but the brunette still tried and pulled Nagito towards him to keep him from falling face first on the ground.

But he pulled a bit too strongly, and now both of them were falling backwards with the trail flying above them.

When the action was over, Hajime was on his back with the other teen sprawled on him, surrounded by shattered porcelain.

The brunette shook his head and felt a stinging sensation at different parts of his body, he probably cut himself with the shattered tea-set. His first order of business however was: “Are you alright!?”

Nagito, face stuck in the other’s chest, grumbled and just gave a thumbs up.

Hajime let out a sigh of relief. However he noticed a very prominent tea stain on Nagito’s back, so he probably was not as alright as he claimed.

They carefully got up from the floor, trying not to cut themselves, and Nagito guided Hajime into another room, the infirmary part of the Health Care Room. They would clean up the shattered glass after they patched themselves up.

“Sorry.” Apologized Hajime. “I tried to keep you from falling but I made things worse.”

Nagito took off his stained green coat, pulled out bandages from a box and started enrolling some around a cut on Hajime’s wrist. “It’s the intention that counts, and I’m used to these types of events.”

“You keep saying that…” Pointed out Hajime. He looked Nagito in the eyes. “That’s pretty ominous.”

The white haired teen’s hand stopped dead in it’s mouvements, and he stared at Hajime with a smile.

“That’s because it is.”

He then went back to patching Hajime up like nothing happened. Hajime didn’t exactly know how to take this reply.

So he took it as a challenge.

“Yeah I understand.”

Nagito’s hands stopped once again, Hajime continued.

“I take you have your own backst- I mean your own history. We’ve all got our own stuff going on I guess.”

Nagito still didn’t move, but he looked back at the other with curious eyes.

Hajime shrugged. “I have my own background, everyone has one.” He thought about what Lady Koizumi said previously about herself, slowly opening up to him. “It’s what makes us interesting.” He reached for Nagito’s jacket, to take a look at the stain on it and how he could wash it off. “That includes you too. You’re plenty interesting.”

He didn’t exactly know why he said all of that. It just felt natural to say that to him. Their interactions were always like that, natural. Like if there was a flow in their words they could easily follow without thinking about it too much.

It felt pretty nice being about to speak so smoothly to the protagonist, the instigator of his doom. Getting on his good side could be what would save him.

Also, he could tell Nagito was a bit of a broken kid.

Like a mysterious character, he clearly had a dark backstory to unravel. This made Hajime curious, but because of the Luckster’s status as the protagonist, he wanted to handle that with care, and like Lady Koizumi, let him open up on his own while making it clear Hajime didn’t mind him having secrets.

The protagonist had no real backstory in the original game. He was a self-insert. But this one, Nagito, was different. He was his own history written in this world that wasn’t coded into a dialogue log.

This just made him morbidly interesting in Hajime’s mind. Now the brunette was not just watching him just to be able to prevent his doom, but because it was just enjoyable to watch him, and have things turn better for him.

The brunette only now noticed that the Lucky Student was silent. But he didn’t seem offended or mad, just silent. Hajime tried to take a look at his face.

“Nagito, you’re all red... Are you hurt? Did you burn yourself?”

The other smiled and gently shook his head. “Not at all. But thank you for concerning yourself for me.” The pale teen continued to roll bandages around Hajime. He moved closer to patch a cut on one of Hajime’s legs. “You’re really kind.”

Flattered but embarrassed, the swordsman waved his hand. “I’m not _that_ kind, I’m trying to be a decent person that’s all…” Ironic coming out of the supposed bad guy rival of the story.

“Then being decent gets rarer by the days!”

The unexpected reply made him chuckle. It was true that nobles didn’t exactly have the reputation of being kind. “Probably!”

The door swung open and Mikan entered in an almost panicked state. “I-I heard there was a breaking noise here what-”

She laid her eyes on both of them, her stare stopped on Nagito’s hand bandaging Hajime’s leg and she instantly became immobile.

Hajime smiled at her. “We’re fine! Though be careful there’s broken porcelain on the other side of the other room, we planned to clean it up afterwards.”

Mikan kept staring at the same spot. It was very strange behavior from her. She took a step back. “Hum… Alright.” She started to disappear behind the door. “I-I’ll leave you alone…”

She closed the door behind her. The boys looked at each other, and Hajime thought:

That was… weird.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ibuki… is harder to write than I thought jsdhcsfh  
> I want to write her as the shoulder Hajime can fall back on when he’s overwhelmed. She already finished her character development from my POV, so Hajime can rely on her emotionally.  
> Also dropping hints about Nagito's background and Mikan's own deal uwu  
> Also I’ve started writing what would confessions look like for some characters… and their rejections. It needs to happen after all but it doesn't stop it from ripping out my soul. That’ll teach me for writing a harem. Also does anyone have a clue how to tag harem stories? jdcbhdkljihujikl  
> Also if anyone has like a komahina writing discord server i’m willing to take cuz god i wanna rant about this ship so badly- hjbsdjhjk


	5. Foreshadowing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Boys shenanigans, a lesson in music, and an ominous tale.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is rather short sorry, but I tried djkncbs  
> I... surprisingly don't got a lot to say hjdknfk

Hajime found a weird letter in his desk. It was signed by Kazuichi and another classmate, Teruteru (he wanted to be called Master Hanamura but there was no way Hajime was going to give him that luxury. He didn’t forget about the one time he faked tripping to try and fall in Hajime’s chest). It told him to go to the school’s storage room after morning classes.

Ever since he befriended Kazuichi he was aware he was the type to arrange meetings and hang outs, so it wasn’t that weird. Aside from the fact he didn’t tell him in person.

However having to meet up with Teruteru in a dark place sent chills down Hajime’s spine.

So he went with his steel sword. Just in case.

He disliked the school’s storage. It was cramped and the right, left and far side of the room was hidden behind thick curtains, something recycled from the old usage of the place as a rest room for kids. It looked like a location out of a horror movie.

To add to the mood, the door creaked loudly when he opened it. It let a bit of light inside the dark room, letting Hajime barely see some tools and objects left on the ground. As he slipped inside, he let the exit somewhat open to have some light, as it was well known in the school that the lighting system of the room didn’t work, as there was no more oil to fuel the lamps and no one bothered to refuel. Of course Hajime knew that, so he brought his own portable candle to light a bit around him.

“What do they want from me this time..?” He murmured. He wasn’t  _ offended _ or mad at them for inviting them to hang out, he was exasperated at the fact he had to come here of all places, as he shared his distaste for it once before already.

He  _ swore _ if it was some kind of stupid prank, he would find Teruteru and Kazuichi and knock them out clean into next sunday.

“Hum… Guys?” He was venturing further and further inside, and he could swear a chill just ran down his spine. He was getting a really bad feeling about this. He sighed to try and breathe away his nervousness, and guessed the others must be hiding behind one of the curtains.

So he walked to the curtain to the right. He swung it open in one fell swoop, and he was only greeted by old beds and sheets. He walked to the left and swung the curtain open, he only saw weapons and a few old chests. He sighed again. So he walked up to the final curtain and opened it like he did the others.

It took some seconds to realize what was in front of him. His eyes were looking at the tip of something made out of steel. He slowly traced the object down.

It was a spear.

It was stabbed in something.

There was the color of blood splattered.

He recognized the person impaled at the tip.

So he let out a scream and fell on the ground. And before he could panic even further:

“Oh look. You’ve been had.”

The impaled body moved. He had his usual smile as he slowly got up. Hajime could only babble out. “N-Nagito!? What the-”

He heard four loud laughs behind him, recognized all of them.

“Oh man, being a bastard was worth it!” Said Fuyuhiko.

A maniacal laugh resonated. “This is revenge! Nothing is more overwhelming than fear!” Spat out Master Tanaka.

“I told you guys it was a great idea!” Laughed Kazuichi.

“Indeed! This was definitely entertaining!” Claimed Teruteru.

Hajime turned around flabbergasted. He then turned back to Nagito who was taking out the “spear” out of himself. It was a fake and retracted its tip when it was stabbed into something, and the blood was fake, demonstrated by the white haired teen while Hajime was watching him. “Sorry. I was roped into it before I could do anything about it!” He laughed.

The other kept laughing while Hajime was slowly getting up.

They made him think he was dead.

“Hum… Hajime?”

They made him the horrible fate of doom he was so terrified of has befallen one of his friends.

“My my… You’re getting up close and persona-”

Teruteru never got to finish his sentence as the brunette swiftly struck his head. Knocking him unconscious on the spot.

_ “Oh crap.” _ Breathed out Kazuichi.

Hajime slowly walked over to him, his hand extended and reaching out to him.  **“You’re next.”**

* * *

After taking care of this trifle matter he bumped into Ibuki in the hallway.

And because this was Ibuki the next thing he knew he was in front of a piano in the music room.

“Hum… why am I here?” He asked while analyzing each and every key of the instrument in front of him.

Ibuki excitedly sat next to him on the piano’s stool, and even playfully pushed him a bit with a chuckle. “You’re here to learn piano!”

The quickly confused Hajime. “Why..?”

“I had a genius idea!” She crossed her arms and closed her eyes. “When Ibuki plays with Hajime, she feels good vibes… So Ibuki is going to play with Hajime more! But play with instruments!”

Now that rung more bells in the reincarnated teen’s mind. The theme of the route slowly came to his mind, Ibuki was a musician, right. After playing with the protagonist, she would invite him to teach him music to play with her. He vaguely remembered an event where they would actually play in front of the crowd at the culmination of their musical partnership.

It was a bit awkward, as Hajime already knew piano. He was no virtuose or prodigy, he simply used to play in his previous life. Not often, but sometimes. It became a little hobby after he was taught in school for music classes. His family was quite wealthy and had a piano he would play on when he would have finished his homework and reviewing lessons for the next 2 months.

He could already tell Ibuki was about to give her piano 101 lesson, so Hajime interrupted her. “Sorry… I kind of already know how to play…”

The news seemed to excite her instead. “Oh really!? But did you play along with someone before?”

“Hum…” His eyes darted around, a bit embarrassed. “No?”

She dramatically pointed at him. “Then you don’t really know how to play!”

Hearing “you don’t know” when he spent hours playing before made him feel quite angry. “What!?”

“You never know how to really play if you’ve always done it all alone! How can you know  _ real _ music if you’ve never done  _ true _ music!”

“What… does that even mean?”

She placed her hands on her hips. “It’s when a group of musicians band together on stage to blast music to an audience! That's when the best music is made! It’s the perfect stage! So playing with someone else is a rite of passage! A true test!”

He started to see where she was coming from. The synergy on stage and combining talents of multiple people created truly amazing pieces of art. For a world still on the piano, the harp, and the violin, she had a more pop rock band mindset. It was out of pace but weirdly endearing. “I see…”

She stretched and cracked her fingers. “So we are going to test it right now! Let’s play a duet!” She then reached into her bag and pulled out some music sheets.

What has he gotten himself into this time?

At first it was quite the struggle to say the least. Ibuki’s… erratic way of teaching took quite a while to be understood. Her playing was even worse.  However once they got into a better groove, and found a song calm enough for them to play together it quickly became a much more enjoyable experience.  Once the musician lady was in the mood, her playing was wonderful. Hajime needed to remind himself to play rather than just listen to the keys Ibuki was pressing.  By the end, the brunette was into it too. It was that same feeling he had when the test answers would just flow out of his hands in the middle of an exam. He thought the term for it was “being in the zone.”

Once they had finished a song, Ibuki seemed to be satisfied and giggled. “This is great! I can feel it!” She nudged Hajime. “Do _you_ feel it?”

If she meant being in the zone then… “I think so?”

"Yahoo~!" She let out a victory cry. “In the next volume of Ibuki’s Adventures, she will play a duo with Hajime!”

He rubbed his hands, feeling them a bit sore. “But didn’t we just play in duo?”

She wagged her finger. “No no no! We played a  _ duet! _ Now we need to play a  _ duo! _ Each of us with different instruments!”

“I see… But what are you gonna play?”

She put her fingers on her head. “Mmmh…”

Back in his world, violin and piano duos were popular, but knowing Ibuki she would want something extravagant, even if she didn't know that it  _ was _ extravagant. “How about the harp?”

“Oh! Alright! Next time we’re doing piano harp! And then after that we can talk about the project!”

“Alright the-” The information went up to his brain. “Wait what project?”

She quickly changed subject and patted his back. “Hey Hajime, you feeling better?”

“Huh?”

“Come on!” She shrugged. “Did the music take away your angryness?”

Bad vocabulary aside, he should've known again. He was quite pissed off when he bumped into her because of Kazuichi and Teruteru’s shenanigans. This was why she dragged him into something again. It became quite the trend of Hajime being lost in thought or feeling down and Ibuki just swooping in with something completely unrelated.

She was maybe her own brand of peculiar, but she was way too perceptive.

“Yeah, I’m better. Thanks.”

* * *

“Hey hum… Hajime?”

The swordsman’s eyes didn’t leave the book he was reading. “What do you want Kazuichi?” He was obviously still somewhat upset about the prank, but thanks to Ibuki, he chilled out a bit.

“Well…” He turned to the rest of the accomplices of the prank behind him, before turning back to Hajime. “Sorry about this morning…”

He stayed silent. He already kind of forgiven them, but he wanted to hear a full apology.

Fuyuhiko spoke up. “Like... I noticed you were feeling down those times around and all, and I told these idiots about it…”

Master Tanaka continued. “And it seemed the Holder of Constructs and Heaven’s Cook thought that such a theatrical display would take your thoughts away from darkness.”

Kazuichi scratched his head. “Yeah that… but that wasn’t really funny. We shouldn’t have done that. Sorry man…”

Hajime sighed through his nose and closed the manual. “Ok. Apologies accepted.”

In the back, Nagito said: “See? I told you he wasn’t the type to hold a grudge!”

Fuyuhiko shrugged. “He did beat the shit of you guys though.”

Teruteru shook his head. “Alas that beat up session was too short for my taste.”

The brunette put his book in his case. “Yeah that’s all you are getting from me.”

The extravagant breeder struck a pose. “Do not tempt one’s strength! Or they shall rain fire and destruction upon you like The Despair Wave!”

The name brought chills down Hajime’s spine.

“The what? The Despair Wave?”

“You don’t know!?” Exclaimed Kazuichi. “It’s the big mass destruction thing that happened 10 years ago because of the witch! It was  _ the _ talk! How could you not know that?”

Fuyuhiko cringed. “Hum, guys well…” He looked at Hajime.

The brunette knew what he was staring at him for. The swordsman nodded, signaling him it was ok to tell.

The others were looking at Fuyuhiko expectedly, waiting for the rest of his sentence as he let out a sigh of relief. “Guys, Hajime doesn’t remember anything before he was 7, he doesn’t know about it. And it’s not something  _ we should really talk about just like that.” _ The blonde glared at Master Tanaka for bringing it up in one of his weird references.

There was a massive silence. Hajime broke the awkwardness by simply waving his hand. “Guys, don’t worry about it. Just tell me about the thing.” 

His sight swept over the others, they were all a bit conflicted, aside from Nagito. He had an expression Hajime couldn’t really put into words. The Luckster wasn’t shocked or awkward, the weird revelation didn’t seem to have any impact on him. Did he expect it? No, he probably brushed it off with a “I’m used to this kind of thing.” or something.

There was also the fact that Hajime did already kind of know what was The Despair Wave.

In the game’s plot, the wave was an event sparkled by a witch named Junko Enoshima.

It was also the name of the game’s worst ending.

Kazuichi started explaining, and it was just what Hajime remembered.

A witch named Junko Enoshima sparked unprecedented chaos onto an organization of mage called the Future Foundation. She had used an army of magic manipulated puppets called Monokumas to completely wreck the entire organization. The event was called this way as the witch’s magic that controlled the waves upon waves of Monokuma was fed by the feeling of desperation.

She had apparently murdered her own twin sister, and used the despair she felt in death as the fuel of her attack. Despair Magic.

Not many lived to tell the tale. Only the head of the foundation, a mage with Animation Magic, another with Water Magic, and none other than Makoto Naegi and Kyoko Kirigiri survived the attack. They were saved from the wreckage by other members, friends of Makoto Naegi that were outside of the line of attack. Headmaster Naegi was the one that pushed her away with his magic. Ever since, Enoshima had completely disappeared from sight.

It was obvious she was the game’s final boss, the super villain. However the team would always manage to defeat her using one of the most powerful magics.

For example, the magic Makoto Naegi used to push her away, Hope Magic, it needed to be casted by multiple individuals and the more hopeful they were of their victory, the more devastating it was. There was also the scenario of the protagonist almost dying, and being saved by Love Magic, as cheesy as it sounded, it was the most powerful healing magic. The more the target was loved by the caster and their close ones, the more they would be healed. But of course, those magic were stupidly rare to be born with, and stupidly hard to learn.

An individual was almost always born with only one magic ingrained in them. However, it was possible for someone to be born with two, have one of them be dormant, and needed to be awakened by some kind of event. It was the case for Makoto Naegi, he was born with both luck and hope, and the circumstances awakened his Hope Magic. It wasn’t really made public since news of one born with this type of magic would’ve risen quite a stir among the researcher community, and Naegi wanted to settle down and create Hope’s Peak without being bothered.

Hajime wasn’t supposed to know that of course, but the game’s lore spelled it out for him in his previous life. Asking about The Despair Wave was an excuse, so if he knew about it later it wouldn’t come off as weird to his close friends, who knew he wasn’t supposed to have heard of it.

And about that worst ending, it was the one where Junko Enoshima appeared, and killed all of the cast. 

She did it with the help of Izuru as well. As not killing him and letting him alive was one of the flags for this bad ending.

Hajime swallowed hard. Maybe the real game hasn’t started until Junko Enoshima showed up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Boys bein boys. It's maybe a dating sim but the male cast deserves their moments to. Good intentions but bad execution, but it's ok.  
>  _Setting events with Ibuki its all according to keikaku_ In all seriousness planning the routes and chapters is actually really hard jdfnvdk  
> And like the title said, yep I'm foreshadowing like a bastard here jdsncfhsj It's hard to give the right amount of information at the right time and choose what to withhold for now. For ya know _suspense_ , and no one wants an infodump.  
> Also I wanna say I feel like I'm having a bit of a burn out, i'm getting a lot of headaches while writing, so I'm sorry if my rythm of updating slows down.


	6. Push To Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hajime gets some magic training, or at least was supposed to, but things always go off the rails when Hajime is around, whether it's a flag or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for being late dsjkndk  
> It becomes harder and harder to plan stuff, however I think I'm touching the final arc I have planned, I just hope I will be able to handle the ending and such.  
> Also, my morale took a bit of an implicit hit when I ended up looking up fanfics to distract myself a bit and saw how much fics as much more success with fewer chapters hahaha _i know it's bad to feel this way but I can't help but feel jelly_ , but at least those people got the attention they deserve and that what counts. I'm used to feeling this way so I'm fine, it just slowed me down a bit with my headaches jdshcdsj but now the chapter is out! Finally!

“Behold! The mighty power of The Thunder Beast!” Proudly yelled Master Tanaka as he summoned an animal spirit. A transparent yellow tiger was running across the green grass of the Magic Training Grounds.

Hajime watched the feline move like a real animal. “It’s crazy how easy it comes to you.”

“It’s what happens when you’re born with a shitton of magic.” Said Fuyuhiko, watching it too.

Kazuichi ran up to the brunette. “Hey Hajime, come with me we’re gonna try some magic endurance!’

“Alright.” Hajime followed the pink haired teen towards a globe like artefact. It was a Glutton, a ball which tested the user's endurance by feeding it magic for a certain amount of time.

While they were making their way to it, they came across Teruteru, flying tasty food on a table with his Cooking Magic, in front of… well, Master Imposter, as his Impersonating Magic kept anyone from knowing his true identity, but they needed to address him somehow. The chef chuckled. “Afterwards, everyone will enjoy my refined cooking! Nothing is better than filling up your stomach after a long work out session!”

Hajime chuckled. “Ok, _that_ I can agree with. Hey, maybe we can invite the rest of the class for a snack!” He said, refering to their female classmates, as this seemed to be a guy only hang out for now, and it seemed a bit unfair in the brunette's mind to let the girls out of the fun.

For some reason, Kazuichi and Teruteru became immobile.

“... What?” Asked Hajime confused at the sudden silence.

The pink haired teen sighed loudly. “Here he goes again! Getting all the girls!”

Now it was Hajime’s turn to be silent. “... What.”

Then once again, the others were silent. “Please. _Please_ don’t tell me you aren’t aware of it.”

The brunette raised an eyebrow. “What are you even talking about?”

Kazuichi and Teruteru looked at each other. And after a beat, they just buried their faces in their hands.

“I can’t believe this!” Said Teruteru. “How can you have mastered _game_ while being unaware of _your_ game!? Have you achieved a new level of player!?”

“I guess I _am_ a player,” The other boys looked at him expectedly. “I like playing board games-”

Kazuichi interrupted him. “See!? This is what I’m talking about! We’re saying you’re a _player!_ A **womanizer!”**

If Hajime was an old computer, he could swear he could just hear the beeping of his brain trying to process the information, until it finally did. “What? **WHAT!?”**

Teruteru dramatically pointed. “Exactly! A _chad!”_

Hajime had no idea how they even knew that word. “Where did you- Why would you even think that!?”

Teruteru grunted. “This is positively infuriating!” He turned to Master Imposter. “What does he have that I don’t!?”

The other replied: “Looks, charisma, charm, not perverted every time he breathes?”

Teruteru dramatically gasped. “That’s right… He has mastered the double power!” He turned to Hajime. “What is your secret? How can you switch back and forth between serious sexy and embarrassed cute!? Explain Hajime!”

Who did they think Hajime was? A Gap Moe phenomenon?

Kazuichi sighed. “Let’s just get to the Glutton before my ego dies more on the inside…”

Hajime kept to himself the reply _“I think mine’s already dead. And you killed it.”_

With no idea where the discussion came from, where it was headed, or who it had to do with, he just moved on to the Glutton.

It was a simple floating crystal like blue sphere with an imprint to put one’s hand on. Hajime never used one before. As himself that is. Izuru used it however.

It was quite funny with Izuru. Apparently when he touched the Glutton, he got a very high score, but his magic was pathetic, which surprised everyone.

Hajime knew why however. It was why Junko Enoshima wanted him by her side in the bad ending in the first place.

His hidden dormant power. Future Magic.

Along with the Hope Magic and Love Magic, it was one of the most powerful buff magic in existence, forming a Holy Trio.

Hope was a defensive spell, it protected and repelled.

Love was a healing spell, it healed and warmed up.

Future was an offensive spell, it shattered and destroyed.

Like the two others, Future Magic fueled itself on the caster’s feelings: The more you wanted what stood in the way of you achieving your goal gone, the more powerful it got.

It was easy to see how it could be used for both good and evil.

However Hajime won’t have to worry about that.

As he slipped into Izuru, his magic changed. Future Magic probably disappeared as well along with it. He was tempted to say good riddance, as he didn’t feel really good about the possibility of having that much power at his fingertips.

He sighed and shrugged as he put his hand on the Glutton. Meanwhile he waited for the results, he noticed Kazuichi mumbling to himself.

“He might have game… but I still have Miss Sonia!”

Hajime raised an eyebrow. “You’re still about her?” He thought it was pretty obvious she wasn’t interested.

“Of course I am!” He took a proud pose. “I’m never gonna give her up!”

“But you might let her down.” He instinctively said afterwards. It was only after a few seconds that he facepalmed after realizing what he had done. So he waited for the Glutton's verdict to distract himself.

He waited.

And waited.

Kept on waiting.

“Kazuichi, is it supposed to take this long?”

The pink shark looked back and forth between the Glutton and Hajime’s hand. “No..?”

“That’s wei-”

He felt something throb in his mind. It was painful and made instantly let go of the crystal.

“Ow…” He held his head and stumbled.

“Are you ok!?” Kazuichi walked to him and held him up, keeping him from falling.

Hajime rubbed his forehead. “Sorry, I just got a big headache…” He felt it throb again and he hissed.

“Wanna go to the infirmary?”

Hajime didn’t want to bother the nurse, Mikan, or Nagito, he got hurt enough during sword fighting with Peko and Fuyuhiko, but he also didn’t want to not check on something that might get worse down the line if not taken care of quickly. “Yes please…”

“Alright soul friend.”

While they walked out of the training ground, the others worried over Hajime, but the two boys hand-waved that Hajime just had a headache, and Kazuichi was carrying him to the infirmary which was for all intent and purposes, true. Even Lady Nevermind, who came across them with Akane (she made clear she didn’t care about titles, as a commoner herself she said she didn’t like it), and they both seemed worried about him. Hajime managed to stir the conversation away from himself by telling her Teruteru was making food in the training ground, and that Master Nidai was planning to show up there too. Which was enough for her to zoom away followed by Sonia, trying to keep the beast under control.

Once arrived at the infirmary, Kazuichi knocked on the door, and Mikan opened. “H-hum- Hello Hajime and h-hello Master Soda… What’s wrong?”

The pink haired teen looked at Hajime with a sly grin, and the brunette was already silently begging to not do what he was thinking.

He did it anyway by almost shoving Hajime into the room while claiming: “He’s got quite the headache so, I’ll leave him in your care!” He then gave Hajime a wink before closing the door, as if he just did a wingman of the year move.

Mikan was a bit startled by Kazuichi’s unexpected behavior and looked back and forth between Hajime and the door.

“Hello Hajime! You have a headache?” Said Nagito in the back of the room. He shoved a box on a shelf before walking to the brunette.

Mikan was in between them, continuing to look back and forth, this time between Hajime and Nagito. Meanwhile, the swordsman was looking forward to the smooth back and forth he and Nagito were going to have, like they always did.

Hajime, still holding his head, answered. “Yeah, but just that. How’re you?”

He chuckled. “I’m alright, you’re the one with a headache!”

The brunette laughed back. “True. But I try to be nice, didn’t you say decency was getting rare?”

“I did! Happy you bothered remembering my bad joke.” He smiled.

This smile brought Hajime’s mind at ease, even while it throbbed in pain. “If I remembered it it wasn’t that bad.”

“I’m glad I entertain you.”

Hajime silenced a giggle. If Nagito knew Hajime found him to be one of the most entertaining people around. Someone truly unbound by the rules of a game’s script, partly at least. “Don't worry y-”

Before he could finish his sentence however, Mikan grabbed his arm which cut the conversation short. Her eyes darted around in panic as if she only just realized what she did. “Hum… I-... T-T-That’s…”

The boys kept looking at her, waiting for some kind of explanation. Especially Hajime, because Mikan was practically hugging his arm at the point.

She took a deep breath to try and say an entire sentence without tripping on her words. “W-we should concern ourselves with Hajime’s headache!”

Nagito voiced the swordsman's thoughts exactly. “Oh. Right.” He gently grabbed Hajime’s wrist. “I’ll show you the medicines. I recommend the beverage.”

On Hajime’s other side, Mikan was still hugging his limb. “I-I find the medecinal herbs more practical.”

“Hum…” Tried to cut in Hajime.

Nagito replied to the clumsy healer, still holding Hajime’s wrist. “But the beverage is sure to be more effective.”

“But the herbs would be quicker to take.” She held the brunette’s elbow to her bosom. “Wouldn’t you prefer to waste less time Hajime?”

Nagito smiled. “I think he would want it to be more effective, to be sure to not waste time treating it again later on.”

Hajime had no idea why exactly were Mikan and Nagito subtly glaring at each other, slowly pulling more and more on his arms while continuing to passively aggressively argue…

But it was _really_ starting to get **_annoying._ **

“Guys.”

“I would personally prefer something warm to clean my mind.”

“But wouldn’t that be wasting time for other things?

_“Guys.”_

“Depends on what time it is. And you can drink faster if you’re in a hurry.”

“But by drinking too fast, you can affect the medicine’s effectiveness and you could choke.”

**“Guys!”**

They finally brought their attention to him.

He pulled his arms out of their grips and grunted. _“You know what?_ I’m gonna go to the art room to look at the paintings. That’ll clear my mind.”

He sighed and left the room. He was happy they both wanted to help him, but he had no idea why it turned into a “I am the better medic” contest, and he wanted to have no part in that. They can flex on each other alone, and if this was their constant dynamic, then sucked for Nagito if he wanted to take the Mikan route. But that was Nagito’s mistake. Hajime was a cautious observer, not a wingman. Nagito needed to get out of his own mess himself without the brunette’s help.

Well, Hajime might consider helping if he asked nicely.

Also Mikan was acting increasingly weird. She wasn’t exactly the most normal person around true, but he didn’t recall her being that… defensive? She was this way only when they were children. Also, when Hajime would stop at the infirmary to cure wounds made during training, she would rush up to him faster than usual. He could recall a time she knocked poor Nagito on the ground during one of her said rush. Hajime had a hard time identifying just why she would be acting this way. It started ever since she laid eyes on Nagito helping him with the broken tea set cuts. But she was the first aware that her and Nagito were a part of the Health Care Committee, and he too had the right, and obligation to help a fellow student in need of healing. Maybe she was scared he would eventually outshine her as a healer? No way. Nagito had his good points in his own right of course, and he was definitely good at patching others (and himself) up, but Mikan was in a category all of her own. Especially with her amazing Healing Magic.

Actually, maybe it was a good thing she got competitive. It could help strive to do better and gain more confidence. After all, she did manage to actively get into a “fight” in the first place, the old meek Mikan of their childhood days would never have persisted to turn it into a passive aggressive match. This meant she had something she wanted to strive for, and that was great.

His line of thought over as well as his journey across the school, he knocked on the art room’s door.

“Come in!” So Lady Koizumi was here.

He gently opened the door. “Hello.”

The painter was just closing the door to the place's storage room, and upon seeing Hajime, pulled a stool from under a table for him to sit. “Oh good timing! I was about to call you for the portrait. Go sit down, I’m going to get my notebook.”

“Alright.” Her attitude seemed less bossy, and more efficient now. Maybe this was her way of opening up? He did as he was told and sat down, and she eventually came back like she promised with her tools.

As soon as she laid a more clear eye on Hajime, her expression suddenly changed and she put her hands on her hips.

“What?” Asked Hajime, expecting a scolding.

She pointed at him. “Your shirt. It’s dirty again.”

He looked at the spot she pointed out, indeed there was a smidge of mud on it. “Oh. I didn’t notice.”

“How do you always manage to get your clothes dirty? That stuff is expensive, you should be careful!”

“True… but I always manage to get something dirty or ripped by running around or sword fighting.” He sighed. “I try mending the tinier holes and washing the tiny stains myself but I always find myself asking my maid on how to do it right…” He chuckled at his own expense.

Lady Koizumi let him chuckle before taking a subtle deep breath. “Take it off.”

The awkward smile on his face was replaced by smiling confusion. “... Huh?”

Her expression appeared serious, but a keen eye could see she was trying to hide her blush behind a business like tone. “Your shirt. Take it off.”

“Hum…” Hajime cleared his throat. **_“No?”_ **

“Come on! It’s to wash it! And I need to know your body line for the painting anyway!”

The brunette protectively put his hands on his upper body. “Why would you need my _body_ line for a _portrait!?”_

She tried to answer but she tripped on her words before reformulating her sentence. “It’s- It’s for the bust part of the portrait, I need to be accurate! Geez! And it’s not like I want to see it or anything!”

Hajime stopped dead in his protective mouvements, looked at her and muttered: _“Tsundere.”_ under his breath.

She put her hands on her hips again and sighed. “Please? I really need it, and the entire school saw it anyway.”

He cringed. “You just _had_ to remind me.” But, if Lady Koizumi _did_ need it, after all he wasn’t a painter, what did he know, and it was true everyone already saw it... He looked around, and leaned a bit into the girl’s ear. “Hum… no one is going to come right now right? It’s just you and me right?”

She became immediately red at his words. “Y-yes?”

He sighed in relief and pulled back. “Oh good… I’ve already exposed myself enough in this lifetime…” He took off his black and white jacket, and started unbuttoning his dark blue shirt.

He tried very hard to ignore it, but he couldn’t help but feel a very intent stare upon him, making him blush and stare back.

 _“Lady Koizumi…”_ He hissed in between his teeth. “Would you please take your eyes **off of me** while **I** **strip?”** Because, breaking news, he felt horribly embarrassed about it, even if it was for business purposes.

“R-right!” She blurted out and turned around.

He sighed again and went back to his shirt business. Button ups were always his friends in his previous life, so having them betray him in the early days of him coming to this academy was a shock back then to say the least. Maybe he should try other outfits, he remembered his maid recommending turtlenecks, maybe he would wear that next time when it got cold.

Once he was done, he asked: “Where do I put it?”

Not looking, she replied. “Hum… there should be a table near you, it’s fine over there. We’ll wash it in the sink later.”

“Alright.” He felt like he was speaking to his mom somewhat. “Oh, and you can turn around.”

She slowly did so, and as soon as the brunette came in her line of sight, she quickly shied away with a choked gasp.

Hajime rolled his eyes. “Come on, you’re the one that told me to strip. _Man_ up.” He joked.

“Very funny.” It seemed his bad pun was enough to fire back her temper, and she genuinely turned around. She was still red, but she turned on her professional mode and started drawing.

Since Hajime had nothing better to do, and didn’t want to distract her, he looked around. The art room was surprisingly quite neat, and one could tell which part of the room was meant for what. A corner covered by a white sheet, itself covered by thin shavings of wood, probably from a carved statue. In another side, a white mannequin next to a table covered by varied cloths and sewing tools. 

As his sight kept sweeping across the room, he noticed none other than the unfinished painting he saw before. This time, the sky seemed to be done. It was as he predicted, a sunset in the evening, points of paint on the dark blue of the night sky, longer and longer strikes of orange brush the closer it got to the warm yellow and white sun.

Lady Koizumi seemed to have noticed his starring and asked. “W-what do you think?”

“Hum? Oh, let me see…” He tried to find the right words to describe the feeling as he stared into the depths of the canvas. “It still feels like it’s evolving. The night sky is more still, cold, like _well_ the night. But closer to the sun the longer strokes of the brush gives it mouvement, warmth, and another thing… how is it called again…” He took some time to remember the word. _“Longing!_ That’s it. I don’t know if it’s the night or the sun… but it gives me the feeling one is longing for the other. Like the brush was trying to pull them together.” It somewhat sounded like the plot of a soft romance novel. An unrequited love between two opposites. However he wasn’t going to say that out loud, that was too embarrassing to admit that he knew quite a lot about romance (thanks to Chiaki and her dating sim influence on him). He kept on staring and felt himself being pulled in the mouvements of the paint. “It kinda warms my heart, but it’s got sadness in it too. It’s bittersweet.”

She was silent for a beat, making Hajime assume he said something wrong. He tried his best to express what he felt, but maybe it sounded a bit too much like an History of Arts exposé. But instead, she smiled. “Thank you, that… that wasn’t a bad insight.”

He sighed in relief through the nose. “I’m getting better then.”

She chuckled. “You’ve still got long ways to go though!”

He shrugged. “I should’ve known.”

After a while, Hajime started to get cold (maybe he would wear the turtleneck quicker than he thought), and they quickly wrapped it up to go wash his shirt. The stain was quickly gone, and even if it was still cold from the water, it was more tolerable with his coat on.

On his way out of the room, he bowed to her. “Thank you Lady Koizumi.” He opened the door ro leave.

“W-wait!” She said. He turned around to hear better what she had to say. “Just Mahiru is fine.”

He raised an eyebrow, he didn’t expect her of all people to let him use her first name, but he was glad she did. “Alright.” He smiled at her and bowed again. “Thank you Mahiru, goodbye.”

She waved him goodbye and he left, satisfied.

Although, he should probably apologize to Nagito and Mikan later for leaving them like that before. And he only just noticed that his headache was gone, guess he wouldn't have to worry about that anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn. There isn't a _single_ cut transition in this chapter. Damn.  
> Part of me was tempted to call Hajime a manwhore (P4 reference the realz knows what I’m talking about), but I’m sticking with Chad. He got that from Yu Narukami. Also Hajime’s got some crazy gap moe going on fight me. Dunno what gap moe is? It’s the effect that happens when a cold/serious/sad character becomes shy/embarrassed/happy and it becomes even cuter by contrast.  
> Also _foreshadowing with Glutton and Mikan woohoo I’m doing so much of that shit srsly_  
>  If you’re wondering why Mahiru was so adamant about the shirt thing, first she was adamant in her FTE and second Island Mode implies she is a _bit_ of a covert pervert. Just a _tidbit._ And for another reason you’ll see eventually _*wink wink nudge nudge* even more foreshadowing_


	7. Combo Set-Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the falling snow, Hajime deepens his bonds, and relearns of the climax.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for slowing down, school has been kicking my ass and it's been very hard to stay focused to write hdjfdlk  
> HOWEVER my notes have taken me far! Now all I need to do is organize that shit and make it into chapters.
> 
> This is not gonna be easy haha

He was right, turned out he was going to wear his black turtleneck and silver coat sooner than he thought. This was what the soft snowflakes falling from the sky told him.

He should’ve expected it, but as soon as he took a step inside the school garden, a snowball hit in the hip.

“Aw… I was aiming for the head!” Grumbled Ibuki.

Hajime wiped the snow off his coat. “You want a snowball fight this early in the morning?”

“Yes!” She exclaimed. “It’s never not a time for a fight!” She then murmured: “Oh that’s a good one for Akane…”

“A good one for who? What are you planning?”

“I’ll tell you if you beat me!” She then proceeded to duck behind a tree and start to create a new snow projectile.

Hajime never had a snowball fight before coming to this world, but since Fuyuhiko was an avid fan of them, and the brunette was his only guy friend at the time, he pulled him into a  _ lot _ of them. So Hajime did what he was forced to do every time, adapt.

Both teens spent the next ten minutes exchanging attacks while either shivering from cold or laughing. By the end, Ibuki was sprawled on her destroyed snow fortress and Hajime was sitting comfortably on a thin patch of freeze.

Painting a bit, Hajime asked for his part of the deal. “Now tell me what that was about!”

“Ok!” She playfully declared. “I’m thinking of writing image songs for the whole class!”

“That’s a pretty great idea!” He admitted.

“I know right!?” She got up and shook herself to get the snow off her clothes. “I need to think up the lyrics more, I’ll also work on the tunes for the instruments!”

He heard that “s” at the end, that got him curious. “How are you gonna play multiple instruments at the same time?”

She put her hands on her hips and laughed like a super villain, before dramatically pointing at Hajime. “That’s where  _ you _ come in!”

Brain cells made the connection as he got up. This was why she was making play duos with her in the music room. It became quite the habit for them to do so, and he really should’ve noticed the signs sooner. “I should’ve known. I should have  _ always _ known with you…”

She kept chuckling. She got closer to him and patted his shoulder. “It’ll be a blast! And in exchange, I’ll make your stage costume!”

Right, she mentioned before that she knitted her clothing herself, explaining why she dressed so uniquely.

She took the occasion to investigate his clothing. “And you changed up how you dressed! Nice~! I like the turtleneck! Hugs your form well!” She poked at the clothing. “Mmmmh… Something tight…”

This immediately rang alarm bells in his mind.  _ “Tight!?” _

“Yeah! I mean…” She knocked on his chest. “It’ll be a waste to not take advantage of it!”

_ “Wowowowow- _ Ok- I’ll get the saying in that alright!? Every big change about my outfit goes through me first, am I clear?”

“Alright! Deal!” She held out her hand.

Hajime tried to shake it, but Ibuki playfully slapped it before he could do so.

“Lady Mioda.” Said a cold professional voice.

Both teens turned to the voice, and before them was Hope’s Peak’s secretary, Kyoko Naegi, previously Kyoko  _ Krigiri, _ she was the daughter of the previous Headmaster Jin Kirigiri. After he passed away, Hope’s Peak was crippled for some years as she was focused on her detective career instead of taking up the mantle. However, after she married Makoto Naegi he took interest in reviving the legacy and Hope’s Peak academy along with it.

Ibuki asked: “Yes?”

The lady in purple continued. “You are asked by Usami to come to her office.”

“Oh! The day has finally come!” She excitedly said. While she zoomed away, she waved at Hajime. “Later!”

He waved back with a smile and watched her go. The secretary bowed to Hajime before leaving as well.

He left the area, and continued to walk in the garden. Classes started later that day, so he still had plenty of time to chill before he would need to go to the first class. And Usami seemed to be busy right now anyways.

He took a deep breath, taking in the fresh air. He got used to the pure air of this world compared to his original CO2 saturated universe, he remembered having a lot of trouble with that originally. He also missed snow back then because of global warming making it rarer by the decade.

He held out his hand and let a snowflake fall on top of it. When was the last time he saw snow that clear in his home world?

This world was great, and he wanted to live in it. He realised that a long time ago of course, but this was just one of those small, precious moments that reminded him of and reinforced his determination.

As he kept strolling through the garden, he noticed a weird shade of color in the snow. Curious, he got to the shade that was under a snowless tree. It seemed that something was buried under the snow.

Just shoveling a bit of the freeze away made Hajime quickly realizing just  _ what _ was underneath.

**“Nagito!?”** A feeling of terror crushed his insides.

Muffled in the snow, the Luckster responded. “Hi Hajime.”

“Don’t react so normally!” The brunette started digging the other out. “Are you alright!? Are you hurt!? What happened!?”

While the swordsman managed to dig the other’s upper body out, Nagito answered: “I’m ok. I’m not hurt. And it’s that snow from a tree fell on me.”

“Then yell or call for help or something!” He pulled Nagito out of the snow. “I was so scared!”

The white haired teen got silent for a beat.

This threw Hajime off, he was sure Nagito was going to retort, that they were going to have their back and forth. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing actually, I’m shocked it…” His grip became tighter on Hajime’s upper arm, trying to get out of the snow. “...feels right.”

The brunette raised an eyebrow.

“My apologies.” He shook his head. “I’m not used to people caring about me. Less voicing it to me.” He gripped Hajime one last time before letting him go.

Hajime wanted to ask more about what he meant, he really did but… he could tell it was something personal. The way the white haired teen’s warmth was crawling to his arm gave him a feel of… sadness. Something bittersweet. The brunette didn’t want to poke into something that might be a bit too sensible. He wanted Nagito to be the one to talk about it first, this way he would be sure he wasn’t going to walk on an unauthorized landmine. That was what Hajime always did with his friends, Fuyuhiko, Peko, Mikan... Just waiting and letting them open up at their own pace.

So, he tried to give Nagito reassurance. “I’ll try to voice it more often then.” He smiled, before taking off his silver coat and putting it on Nagito’s shoulders, as he was probably still cold from being buried in the snow.

The way the Lucky Student’s pupils moved clearly showed some kind of shock, but the smile creeping on his face told Hajime it was a good kind of shock.

That expression was all the answers Hajime needed to hear, so he started walking ahead, signaling the other to follow him.

Nagito pulled on the coat better on his shoulder, getting comfortable while Hajime’s warmth and scent surrounded him, before he walked in the other’s footsteps.

They walked in comfortable silence next to each other, with the sounds of passing students talking and the crushing noise of the snow under their feet echoing around them. Nagito blended right in the environment, his pale complexion, white hair, grey eyes, among the blue and white freeze of the cold… Hajime  _ still _ didn’t get why Mahiru didn’t want to paint him. He was so pretty, it was a shame to not immortalize it.

Nagito noticed Hajime’s staring. The brunette felt embarrassed and looked away, maybe the protagonist didn’t want to be stared at. Hajime knew what he was talking about, he was pretty sure he can always feel someone staring at him either in the corridors (thanks to his bombastic tournament performance), or in class (it was only natural as he sat near the front row, but some of said looks were weirdly persistent). So he could totally understand if Nagito disliked it.

However, when Hajime glaced back, Nagito was staring at him with a smile.

Did Hajime misinterpret something..? He started feeling awkward. He needed to engage the conversation to distract himself.

Right, he had a question he always wanted to ask.

“Say, Nagito?”

“Hum?”

“Do you get along alright with Mikan?” Ever since the both of them fought in the infirmary, he started to get worried about their bond. He still thought what he did back then, that if he didn’t it was Nagito’s own fault for not picking the right dialogue choices, but Hajime would still prefer it if they got along.

“I am not the best at judging social interactions, but I think it’s alright. We are both members of the same committee and we strive to help our fellow students together, even if we have our little... disagreements now and then.”

It was only natural to fight with someone sometimes, even best friends and family will disagree, so if it was not frequent it was not necessarily a red flag. And it was the perfect transition for: “What do you think about Mikan?”

“She’s a very sweet gentle person, and she is truly dedicated to her nursing.” Oh? did her shrinking violet appeal get to him? “However, she is sometimes a bit extreme, especially when it comes to some subjects…”

The brunette could tell that this was a major turn off for him. The pale teen clearly appreciated her, but didn’t think of her that way. _Yet_ at least. “Then… how about Peko?”

“Ah, Lady Pekoyama? A true example of discipline, and a formidable fighter!” Hajime couldn’t help but nod along with his allegations. “This gives her this… ominous unapproachable vibe.” The brunette couldn’t help but nod at that as well. Fuyuhiko had trouble connecting with her because of that when they were kids. “I truly respect Master Kuzuryu for not being intimidated by her, it is also pretty great to watch the two of them interact.”

With that statement, Hajime’s mind was set. Nagito was definitely not interested in her at all, and it was not going to change. He mentioned how great it was to see Peko interact with her fiancée, Hajime could definitely remember that has a major flag  _ off _ the route. Oh well. The swordsman already concluded the route became too hard because of him, so he didn’t blame Nagito for not being interested. He was blaming himself instead. “I see, I understand. Oh, and did you get to play with Ibuki?”

“Yes I did actually, she was quite insistent on it.” He chuckled. “We played hide and seek, I didn’t find her for a while, until I realized she was just always behind me.”

“That’s… a very Ibuki thing to do.”

“Indeed, she is very hyper, and surprisingly wise…” Hajime almost said  _ “I know right?” _ . Nagito awkwardly laughed. “But all that energy is bad for my heart.”

The white haired teen did mention before he enjoyed calm and silence, so Ibuki would be a lot to deal with for him. She was a lot to deal with for Hajime, who always somehow ended up in the center of attention. “I get it.” And now for the final question: “And Mahiru? Did you get to talk to her?”

“She helped me blend in with the class when I first arrived.” Oh, that was a good sign. Hajime could recall her being concerned about Nagito and Akane’s social interactions, as commoners they were outcasts for some. However he could recall Mahiru being glad both of them found friends in the class, Akane in Master Nidai, and Nagito in Hajime. “She’s quite motherly! This is probably why Lady Saionji likes her so much.” 

The brunette thought her and Nagito would be a good match, Nagito would have someone to take care of him, and Hajime wouldn’t stress this enough, the Lucky Student was good looking and thought he would be interesting to paint. He was  _ sure _ Mahiru accepted to paint the protagonist in the original game because of how good looking he was. So he really didn’t get why she wouldn’t want to do it anymore, why she would want to draw _Hajime_ instead, even if she already explained to him why, things just didn’t click for him. “Yeah she’s… rough, but not a bad person.”

“She seems like a great big sister figure to me.” Ah. Sisterzoned. Some people were into the big sister archetype, but it was clear from Nagito’s expression he truly meant it in a family way. For now at least.

“You’re right. Sometimes when she talks to you, you feel like it’s coming from your mother.” He smiled.

Nagito chuckled. After a beat, he asked: “Tell me Hajime, why are you asking me about the girls?”

The brunette almost choked. “Oh that’s-” He needed to keep it cool, so he said a smooth normal lie. “I lost a bet with Kazuichi and this was my dare…” Wait, maybe that was a bit too cold. “And I was curious about your opinions too.” Now that was more truthful.

The Luckster smiled. “You’re going to tell him about it?”

The brunette joked: “Maybe.” Hajime thought that if he was found out, might as well go all the way. “And final question, what’s your type? The type of person you would like romantically I mean.” Of course Hajime was curious about it. He didn’t even need to wonder why, it was a matter of fact in his situation. However, the thought of knowing gave him a warm feeling in the stomach. Weird, but it was probably anticipation.

Nagito brought his hand to his chin in thought. Hajime let him think out the words. When the Luckster was done, he looked up at the sky with a smile and gripped Hajime’s coat. “Someone with incredible kindness towards everyone, but determined and salty. Someone that would want to understand me, and who looks towards the future.”

That… was not very helpful.

“That’s… vague… I don’t even get what that means...” Stated Captain Obvious Hajime.

Nagito laughed, and surprisingly, put his hand on Hajime’s shoulder as he said. “But isn’t figuring out what it  _ really _ means all the fun?”

The brunette raised an eyebrow. Was Nagito trying to tease him? He couldn’t help but notice the physical contact too. The Lucky Student didn’t seem like a touchy person, so this was probably a big step forward. Even if he was confused, Hajime smiled back at him. “I guess.”

They then heard the familiar voice of Ibuki. “Hajime~ Oh Nagito is there too!” She jumped in front of them, like she was trying to make an entrance.

“Hello Lady Mioda.” Greeted the pale teen.

“Good nom-nom-noming Nagito! Hajime! Usami told me you should go to his office presto!”

“Oh, right now? Alright.” He didn’t know why he was called there, but if he was called then there must be a reason. Hopefully it wasn’t trouble. “I’ll be off then.” He started walking away, he looked back at the others. “Oh and Nagito, you can keep my jacket for now, give it back when you want. See you guys during class!”

They exchanged their goodbyes, and the brunette was off.

* * *

Hajime knocked on the office’s door, and heard the secretary’s voice inside, telling him to come in. He did what he was told, and Lady Naegi stood alone in the office. “The headmaster isn’t here?”

She shook her head. “No, he had other matters to attend to to prepare for an event, this is also why we summoned you here.”

Hajime sat down on the chair in front of the principal’s desk.

The lady in purple continued. “We are organizing a class trip for Class 77.”

“A class trip-”

The revelation hit Hajime like a brick. Right! The class trip! The climax of the game!

He completely forgot about that. Ibuki has been making too much of a good job to take his mind off things by playing together, as well as Mahiru using him as a model to paint his portrait, sword training with Fuyuhiko and Peko, magic training with Kazuichi and the guys, spending time with Nagito, being patched up by Mikan, classes, drinking tea with Lady nevermind, hand to hand combat with Akane and Nekomaru, eating sweets with Lady Saionji…

… He was actually really busy all the time. No wonder he forgot. He wanted to facepalm, but he tried to not humiliate himself in front of Lady Naegi.

Said distinguished lady continued. “Yes, a class trip on Jabberwock Island. Its objective is to reinforce bonds in between the members of the class.”

“I see. But… why was I summoned here exactly?”

The secretary opened a drawer in the desk, and pulled out what looked like a modern tablet to Hajime, but it was a magic tablet. This world's version of technology. “During the trip, the students will research the Island for material for different projects, supervised by the teacher. While the teacher observes the students, a single student will use this tablet to supervise the students themselves to choose where they go to find the material, or if they need to clean or rest instead. Take it as an independence test, to see if the students can work and bond together to accomplish an objective.”

Hajime saw where it was going. Most of them were children of nobles, who had everything handed over to them. Here they would need to depend on themselves and each other, and would need to develop social skills. Something vital for politicians, nobles, royalty ect. Also, this academy was a good occasion to create contacts, and genuine friends. More preparation for the harsh adult world the better it was for them. The brunette nodded as a sign he understood.

Lady Naegi put the tablet down. “We decided that the best candidate to be supervisor is you.”

He tried not to let out his trademark deadpan  _ “What.”, _ so he instead said a more polite: “Excuse me? I- hum… why?” It was still pretty pathetic sounding nonetheless

His memories started to flood back in his head, he recalled that the protagonist was the one picked for the supervisor role. And said event transformed the game into a bit of a management game in between free time.

But more importantly, why him? He didn’t like to be the center of too much attention, and being a supervisor meant he was going to be the complaints department too. He had a high tolerance bar, yes, but there was a point where he would snap at someone, especially when he was bothered while feeling tired. He really didn’t believe he was a good pick for the role.

Nevertheless, Lady Naegi answered his question. “We think you are the best choice for this role.”

“C-can I have the reasons why..?”

“Of course.” She raised a finger and looked up in thought. “You are an honor student with an  _ almost _ perfect behavior.” Hajime cringed. Yes he did knock out Kazuichi and Teruteru for the prank. “You get along with every single one of your classmates, even- no, _especially_ the most socially awkward ones, and you are not scared to hit the tables with your fist when necessary as well as being talented in combat. Among other things.”

He wanted to object, but having his “qualities” being listed seriously by the school’s secretary made him feel extremely awkward and embarrassed. So all he could do was look at the ground and nod.

“Are you hesitant?” She asked.

This made him jump a bit to be called out this way.

“Understandable. This is probably the first time you would be charged with such a task. I’m sure you are uncomfortable with being the center of attention.” He had no idea how she was able to tell so accurately what he was feeling, but he then guessed it was probably her detective skills speaking. “However, with your performance at the tournament, as well with how you handled the sudden attention, I’m confident this wouldn’t be a problem for you.” She crossed her arms with a very slight smile. “You also wouldn’t know how everything would turn out for sure as long as you didn’t try. And my logic tells me this could go even better than expected.”

He didn’t know how the Naegis did it, if Makoto Neagi taught his wife or if she learned from him, but she too, had mastered Main Character Aura. Said charisma convinced him to accept.

Even though Hajime knew perfectly this would not go well. Thanks to a force outside of his power: his slowly approaching doom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeeaaah folks its time for island time  
> Oh man, here comes what is possibly the final arc. I am _very_ scared for some reason, as I have no confidence, but I'llt ry to make it as good as possible!  
> I gave Kyoko her time to shine. She deserves it.  
> Also you can tell by the title I keep on setting up shit.  
> And have Nagito trying to be smooth. Emphasis on trying.  
>  _I don't know what to say aside form that sorry my notes gets more and more stupid djncbdh_ Anyways I hope you enjoyed!


	8. Loading Screen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A transition, direction: Jabberwock Island.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, the loading chapter is so stupidly short, because the loading in SDR2 is short! Hahaha*cries* im so sorry i didn’t make it longer  
> Take this as a transition chapter, I… I explain in the other notes, anyways, enjoy. I think.  
> Also I think 16 will be the numbers of chapters in total, it's just an aproximation for now, but it's a pretty good one. We'll see if it changes.

Not a week later, the class was on a boat direction Jabberwock Island, and because life was so great:

Hajime got sick on board. Seemingly caught an awful cold and headache from playing too much in the snow with Ibuki.

The trip was supposed to last two days, but he couldn’t really appreciate it as he was bedridden with sickening fever. Too tired to do anything, and feeling too awful to stay awake, he slept through most of those days with Mikan and sometimes Usami by his side, keeping an eye on his condition.

He kept blinking back and forth between the realms of unconsciousness and reality, he rarely had the time to see anyone else but Mikan and Usami’s worried faces. They did mention how the others would visit while he was asleep.

He could testify to that somewhat, aside from the covers of his bed’s cabin keeping him warm, there was also his familiar silver coat which he let a certain someone borrow. This definitely warmed him up and kept him in good spirit, even if he felt like he was dying on the inside.

During one of the few moments he stayed awake for a bit longer, Mikan checked up on his temperature again. “Your fever is still high… But it’s better at least.”

He made a humming noise to give her the indication he was listening, even if he was barely awake.

She put a wet towel in the bucket of water. “You can still breathe alright? Want me to help you blow your nose?”

He mumbled a “Yes... please…” His voice deformed by his runny nose and tired mind. She put the wet towel over Hajime’s forehead, reached for a tissue and put it over Hajime’s nose. He blew it, feeling a bit disgusted with himself.

He grunted in exhaustion. She put the tissue to the side and wiped his face with the towel. “Don’t worry Hajime! If you’re starting to feel worse, I’ll give you healing!” She smiled. “Lots and lots of healing!”

This worried Hajime instantly. The last time he heard that sentence was when they were kids, when she would rely a lot on her magic. Especially after the incident. She was so protective of him back then, always telling him “I’ll give you lots of healing if you’re hurt!”, she got over that with time, so why would she say that now again? Was it because this situation was maybe similar? Was she just that concerned for his condition? He already noticed Mikan was acting defensive those times around. Did it get worse? What made Mikan this way recently? Was Hajime right, was she in a competition with Nagito over who was the best medic? But while Nagito did come once in a while while he was asleep to bring medecine, he was mainly taking care of the others while Mikan, the most experienced of the two, took care of Hajime. So why would she even feel the need to do that now in the first place?

He needed to talk to Mikan about this eventually. However, his eyes were getting heavy, and he was pulled back into the realms of sleep once again.

But sleep wasn’t a much better place either, as nightmares started to plague him. Alas, he didn’t know what those nightmares were specifically, as he forgot them too quickly to draw any kind of conclusions about them. The only thing he could recall was a vague voice, some kind of weak echo.

A feeling of dread was sinking deeper and deeper in his stomach. The claws of doom were closing slowly on him, he could feel it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok. From here on chapter length is gonna get VERY irregular ok? Dhbdjkk Planning the other chapters was hella hard and it’s going to be even harder to write them out. So please, give me some time. There’s a lot for me to unpack and there’s school in the way too, so I’m sorry if I’m slow, I’m trying really hard, but this is honestly going to be the hardest thing to write ever now for me. So I ask you to please be patient, I’m sorry.


	9. Fanservice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hajime finally gets some relaxing alone time. But nothing goes as planned with him isn't it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I said it before and I'll say it again, chapter length is gonna be very irregular from here on out I'm sorry jnbhdsjw  
> At least from the title you know what time it is

It seemed the universe decided to have mercy on Hajime as his sickness eventually disappeared on the last stretch of the journey, letting him get on the island with his own two feet.

The layout was just as he remembered, the multiple islands, the hotel, the cottages… On the first day there was no work for them, Usami wanted to let them explore and get familiar with the environment, as well as put their things in their rooms.

Hajime, still somewhat worried, and already aware of the layout and his task as supervisor decided to spend most of the day inside. However, he decided he was absolutely going to crash at the place’s hot-springs on the fifth island. The place was basically a base for knights, weapons everywhere, but there was a break room and said hot springs to relax their muscles.

In the evening, he dragged himself to the bathhouse, it was weirdly traditional with rocks and plants, compared to the castle-like looks of the rest of the island.

The hall was also quite traditional. To corridor towards the changing rooms right next to each other, each room behind a curtain, one blue and one red.

Obviously the blue one was for the boys’ side, so he reached out to open it-

Wait. That sounds like a cliché scenario where the MC walked in the wrong bath because the girls picked the wrong one, then as soon as he stepped in the bath, before he even got the chance to explain, he was bombarded by insults and projectiles. And then everyone just acted like it never happened.

Well Hajime thought:  _ Not today. _

“Is anyone in there?” Called out the brunette.

“Yeah why?” He heard on the other side, it was Akane.

He heard a snort, probably from Lady Saionji. “Don’t tell me you want to join us?”

Hajime snorted back. “Yeah right. I was just making sure I wasn’t walking into the wrong bath. Now if you’ll excuse me ladies…”

On that note, he entered the _other_ bath, with no one inside. Perfect. A  _ long relaxing _ bath _all_ to _himself._

He changed out of his clothes and wrapped a towel around his waist before slipping his foot into the large warm spring. He walked a bit to get to deeper grounds, and he slowly slipped inside the water, feeling the heat sipping inside him and unwinding the tension in his muscles.

**_“Aaaah~!”_ ** He practically loudly moaned at the sensation, but he didn’t care, he was alone anyway and  _ God _ it felt  **GOOD.**

Once he comfortably sat down he pressed his back against the warm rocks, and didn’t waste any time sprawling himself. He was so happy to finally get some  _ alone relaxing time. _ Mikan always told him he was tense all the time, including his muscles, especially his shoulders. He could practically feel the cracks of his back becoming loose. Releasing strain bit by bit…

He bit his lip and stretched. Once again, an easily taken out of context noise escaped from his mouth:  **_“Mmmmh~_ ** _ Now  _ **_that’s_ ** _ more like it~!” _

Hajime  **loved** hot-springs. It was the absolute best friend to an always on guard and under pressure teen like him. The perfect space to release stress, in  _ complete,  _ **_uninterrupted,_ ** **_silence_ ** **_._ ** Absolute  **heaven.**

He could also feel the spots where it just needed a _little push_ to relax. There was a little part of his back he felt was still a bit awkward. He slid his hand in the water, pressed against it and felt another loud crack. “ **NGH-** _Oh that’s good~!”_

Nothing was better than those sensations. Nothing. It was also a good occasion to check if there was anything on him, new scars, wounds, or anything special. He looked down, there wasn’t anything new, there were one or two scars on his stomach from little accidents, nothing compared to the one on top of his head anyways.

Looking down on himself like this made him think:  _ “What’s everyone’s deal with my chest anyway?” _

Sure, he knew it was big by standards. ... _Really_ big by standards but why did it become his freaking running gag? It was just muscles. Just happened to be born with that body line and have been developing it with exercise, it was not something to make a big deal out of. He couldn’t help but touch his bust out of curiosity, as if checking for anything particular. It was really nothing special.

He heard a noise, it was a sharp shocked gasp coming from the other side of a rock in the spring.

He… wasn’t alone?

“Who… who’s there?” He mumbled, horrified. He moved himself to try and see who was the other person.

He was not very comfortable to see a familiar patch of white hair.

“N-Nagito..?”

The other teen was in the same position as Hajime, although he was also holding his wrist. Not just holding, gripping  _ hard, _ it was practically turning blue. He was also in a pretty deplorable state, horribly sweaty and seemingly had drool coming out of his mouth with dilated pupils. The towel under water also didn’t seem to be in the best state, as if something was pushing it off-

The pale teen readjusted his towel before running away from the scene and blurting out:  _ “MyapologiesHajimeI’llleavenowseeyoutommorrow!” _

And with that he was gone. Leaving Hajime alone to process the situation.

He was there the whole time.

Hajime blushed. Blushed  _ hard. _ He put his hands on his cheeks as he felt his temperature taking off high. He could feel his stomach doing turns on itself and his legs becoming weak.

It surprised him, he was embarrassed sure, but that was maybe a bit much of a reaction. Sure, he thought he was alone that whole time and he made… noises but it was just Nagito, it was not the end of the world!

His brain certainly seemed to think so, and it was his stomach’s cue to shatter and become an insect swarm.

He had no idea what was happening to himself but he was sure of one thing: fun was over and he wanted a good night’s sleep.

* * *

He didn’t have a good night’s sleep. Not only did he keep rolling back and forth in his bed screaming at himself for what happened for whatever reason with Nagito’s face stuck in his head, but the nightmares didn’t leave. In fact, they seemed stronger than ever.

He could still recall the echo of a voice. Saying something like… “It has to”. It has to... what? He didn’t know, as he forgot everytime he woke up.

It was becoming quite the problem, the next day he could handle it just fine, giving everyone their tasks thanks to the magic tablet, but the day after, others told him that he had some pretty bad bags under his eyes. He handwaved it as having trouble sleeping, but Usami grew really worried.

“Trouble sleeping huh... You're having nightmares right?” The cute bunny asked, walking towards Hajime on the beach.

“Well, yes… I forget them when I wake up but it’s been bothering me a lot…” Hajime sighed while looking for some more information on his tablet. He needed to plan the collection of materials for the next day.

“Mmmh… When you don’t manage to fall asleep because of nightmares, that’s often because you don’t feel safe alone in your room. You can ask someone to sleep next to you!”

“… _Huh?”_ Now that was an awkward thought. Very awkward. “I can’t ask that…”

“Yes you can! I already did it for you!”

**“What.”** He could only breathe out, the magic item almost falling from his hands.

She chuckled happily. “I asked the boys of the class if one of them would mind sharing rooms with you for a while. A lot of them volunteered, so they played Earth Fire Water to settle it.”

A  **_luck based_ ** _ game _ huh? Before Usami even mentioned the winner, Hajime already knew.

“Nagito won.”

His stomach spun and he could feel his temperature rise again. He knew this trip was going to be hell of earth, but at least he knew the reason! But now he had nightmares and his body heat was going all over the place with no idea why!

_ “What’s happening to me!?” _

His scream echoed thorough the island for hours.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There’s one advantage to being genre swavy, you can avoid harmful clichés jhbvfdj  
> Also I changed the look of the fifth island because, well, can't exactly keep the same stuff i there, so it's a castle now! djnbhcfdj  
> Oh and, for those wondering why was Nagito holding his wrist like a madman, he was trying to stop his horny from taking over. Because there’s better times and places for that type of stuff.  
> And by the way, i think you guys are aware of it but Hajime is quite the unreliable narrator when it comes to his own feelings, because he's _that_ blind. Just keep that in mind hjbvdjio;l


	10. Fan Disservice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hajime realizes that Usami's idea wasn't so bad, and he gets to observe a gorgeous scenery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> UWU What's this double update haha well, those two chapters were really short so you deserved it.

Sleeping in the same room as Nagito… wasn’t that bad actually.

In the first nights, sure, he felt like he was about to go insane. Having another presence in his room at night and it being Nagito made something in his guts twist. But there was a moment that signed the turning point, the event that fortified the fact that Usami was right.

He had a dream, it was more vivid than before. There was still the echo of a voice: “It has to be…” Has to be what? And hands. Dark sticky human hands… crawling all over him.

He woke up in a cold sweat in a flash. Across the room, the Lucky Student, who was in another bed put there by their teacher, was woken up as well by the sound of Hajime’s quick mouvement.

Nagito quickly picked up on what was happening. “Another one huh?”

Hajime didn’t answer and held his head, trying to recall more about the nightmare but to no avail.

The Luckster simply walked to the other’s bed and sat down on its edge. “At least, no matter how bad nightmares get, dreams and reality are different.”

Hajime instinctively answered: “I’m not so sure about that.” Reminding himself of his eventual doom.

“Oh?”

The brunette quickly noticed his slip, and tried to catch himself up. “Ah- well… I lived something out of a nightmare once…”

Nagito scooted closer, sitting next to the other. “I’m all ears.”

Hajime sighed. “Well… you know I got amnesia right?” Nagito nodded. “The first thing I remember… I was on the floor at the bottom of some stairs, I was feeling something wet on top of my head and they were people I didn’t know talking to me. They were panicking and when they saw that I opened my eyes, they started calling out to me. I was so confused. I just… didn’t remember anything.” The brunette chuckled sadly. “Isn’t that scary? Waking up hurt and with no idea of who you are?”

The white haired teen was silent for a beat. “Yeah.” He murmured. “It does sound nightmarish. But…” He shrugged. “How do you know it wasn’t a good thing?”

“... huh? That’s- that’s not cheering me up Nagito-”

The protagonist held out his hands as a sign for Hajime to calm down. “P-please wait! Let me explain my line of logic…”

Hajime turned silent. Curious on how that could be a good thing.

“Let me tell you a little story to illustrate.” He cleared his throat. “This is one I heard from Headmaster Neagi. One day, he was walking down the street with Lady Neagi normally. All of a sudden, he trips and falls face first in a puddle of mudd. That’s unlucky right?”

“Of course…”

“But…” Nagito smiled. “Just afterwards, Lady Naegi told him that by tripping, he avoided a projectile headed right for his head that could’ve seriously hurt him. So, wasn’t tripping good luck all along?”

“That’s…” Hajime tried to logically look at it. Sure, tripping and being covered in mud was annoying, but it was better than getting badly hurt. “That’s more like the lesser of the two misfortunes…”

“If you think of it that way…” He pointed towards the brunette. “Was losing your memories a good thing?”

Hajime’s eyes widened.

“Maybe there was something during that time you would rather forget…” Nagito looked down. “Maybe this accident saved you from something else. A fate…  _ worse _ than this.”

The feeling of dread sunk inside Hajime’s stomach. Because he knew. He knew Nagito was right.

If it wasn’t for this accident, Izuru was truly doomed to die, whatever the MC did, or he would bring death to the entire cast. If Hajime didn’t replace Izuru, Mikan would’ve dealt with an abusive fiancée her entire childhood, and Nagito himself would’ve had to deal with him. So did the rest of the class. And if Hajime just replaced Izuru but kept his memories, he would’ve had to live with his memories of a prickly abusive brat until the end of his days.

Nagito was just trying to cheer him up, that maybe that incident wasn’t so bad, but he spoke what was perhaps a universal truth.

Hajime closed his eyes and laughed. He pat Nagito’s slender shoulder. “Maybe you’re right.”

“Are you feeling better?”

The brunette let out a relaxed sigh. “Yeah, thank you.”

* * *

He felt lighter that day, there was almost a spring in his step. Nagito still had his magic of cheering Hajime up. This made him get his job as supervisor done swifter and handle the handiwork of searching for materials smoother. Seemed like a more peaceful mind helped him with his productivity. Falling asleep was now far less stressful with Nagito by his side, if he were to wake up in sweat, they would talk it out, reminisce about other stuff or talk about their classmates.

Was it weird to say that Hajime felt like his existence has been validated? That him being in this world just… wasn’t that bad of a thing? Maybe that helped people?

That he didn’t just mess the script up? That he wasn’t a leech on a world that wasn’t his?

He was scared he messed up the protagonist’s path. Spoiled a story made for him. But that same protagonist reassured him.

It made him happily sigh. Maybe this trip wasn’t so bad after all.

After a long day of work, Hajime decided to enjoy his free time with a stroll on the second island. His step carried him beyond the little dinner towards the second beach, and after walking past the beach house, he noticed someone sitting on a stool next to a table, in front of a canvas. Mahiru.

He silently walked towards her. She was completely absorbed in her craft, holding a palette and observing the beach, before gently dipping her brush in the paint and gently stroking the canvas. She didn’t even notice Hajime’s presence, proof of her concentration.

Next to her, on the table, were other art tools that the brunette wasn’t familiar with, and there was also her notebook, opened, and full of doodles of Hajime.

They were good.  _ Very _ good. Some of them were just Hajime’s face under different angles, he could tell this was Mahiru’s work while he was being her model for the tournament portrait. But on the other page however, was a sketch of Hajime shirtless. He could tell there was a lot of effort put into that one, he wasn’t any good at art, but the numerous pencil scribbles told him that Mahiru spent lots of time on this one. This was maybe the sketch she based the portrait of? It was quite embarrassing to see how much detail she had put into drawing his body line.

Feeling a flush creeping on his face the more he looked at it, he brought his eyes to Mahiru’s art.

She was drawing the beach and the ocean beneath the evening sky of the canvas. She was finishing the sea, but it seemed the beach part was over. The sand had reflections of orange and blue, making it appear soft, almost like snow.

Inside the sand where two distinct sets of footprints, clear traces of two people having walked across the shore. One was a bit bigger than the other, and the walk was straight and direct. The other was a bit smaller, and the walk seemed more… hesitant. Some traces of steps were heavier than the other set, like they stood in one place for longer. Was the smaller set following the other?

He associated it with the rest of the painting. The stars and sun in the sky, the brush trying to pull one or the other together, and the traces of two people, one straightforward and the other hesitant…

Hajime got the taste of unrequited love from the piece. Maybe the sky represented the universe trying to pull the two on the beach together? By the prints it didn’t seem to be working. Cute, but tragic. Bittersweet.

He wanted to talk to Mahiru, but one look at her face made it clear she was in the zone and pouring all her energy into her work.

Hajime didn’t want to bother her, and she would probably get mad if she was interrupted. He wouldn’t want to be interrupted either in the middle of something important.

So he did a little compromise, and wrote inside the notebook on the table his thoughts on the painting, with his signature and a  _ PS: Good luck! _

He then left alone to her craft, leaving the beach while looking forward to her full painting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Foreshadowing...?_  
>  God the shit I'm pulling out is so cryptic when the twists will hit I feel like I'll give you guys headaches dnfvbdhjkl  
> Well I'm saying that, but I think you see where I'm going with mahiru at least. Maybe.  
> Also the next chapter is going to be hell to write for me... hjdnbchdsj I feel like my writing took one hard dip in quality bjndhbs I hope it's just me! Hahaha...


	11. Detective Archetype

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For Hajime's surprise, a party is thrown, but of course, nothing goes as planned, like always.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's time for the obligatory class trial chapter!

Hajime discovered there was actually a reason why Ibuki was called into Usami’s office before the trip.

She organized a party. And planned a concert with it, where she would play the image songs she and Hajime had been practicing together.

Would’ve been nice if she actually  **told him about it.**

That aside, here he was, in the old building on the first island, about to enter the dining hall in the costume Ibuki made for him.

The second…  _ The second _ he entered, all eyes were on him, and he already wanted to crawl under a rock and die.

Teruteru was of course the first one to talk, on his way of leaving the room for the kitchen. _“Oooh_ I told you all he was a chad!”

“And I tell you to shut up.” Said Hajime just before Teruteru disappeared behind the closed door. Everyone kept staring at him. “What? Want a painting?” He said before walking into a corner.

He felt like he had the right to be a bit prickly with what kind of outfit he was going around in. Tight black pants with a just as tight black crop top which was more loose the closer it got to his neck, silver button up and a green choker with a golden pendant dangling on his chest.

And he had to  _ ask _ Ibuki for the button up.

He cringed and tried to calm down. He shouldn’t let his bad humor ruin everyone’s fun. And he  _ did _ greenlight this outfit, it was better than Ibuki’s other ideas. She also clearly put a lot of work into it, he should treat the clothing with care. At least it was surprisingly comfortable and easy to move in, she did wonders with it. Thinking of which, Ibuki brought her own personal magical object, fueled by her own Music Magic. She had basically invented this world’s recorder, and was playing music in the room.

Everyone had brought with them their best outfits, so Hajime stood out even more. Oh well, not a lot he could do about it. He arrived quite late to the festivities while struggling with his clothing, and he could tell the party had been going on for a while with the way Akane was munching down the dishes on the table.

Ibuki fiddled with the music and the magic lights as well, dimming them and the room sunk into a bluish shade. Now Hajime knew his clichés enough to know what type of song was going to play next.

The musician stumbled across the room and practically jumped on the brunette “Hajime~!”

The brunette barely had any time to prepare for her landing, which ended up with her crashing on him. Good thing his back was against a wall in the first place. “Oof-!” He couldn’t but let out.

She giggled. “Yay~ It looks just as good as Ibuki hoped!” She touched the button up. “But now…” She struck a pose. “It’s time to get in the groove!” She then pulled on Hajime’s arms and the both of them entered the crowd.

He guessed what she wanted now. “You know, if you wanted to dance you could just… ask?”

“Nah! I’m doing it with  _ style!” _ She said. She then put her hand on top of the brunette’s, an indication for him to put himself in position.

Of course Hajime knew how to dance a slow, he was taught after all. He would also sometimes learn some more from Lady Nevermind. He was doubtful Ibuki knew how to do it however.

Nevermind, she was pretty good. Maybe thanks to her great sense of rhythm? Hajime had prepared himself for some kind of epic swing or an unexpected move, but she kept herself in check and followed the music to a T. It was… a bit out of character to say the least. Was she holding back for Hajime to follow her? If that were the case, he appreciated the thought.

“You’re doing pretty good!” Commented Ibuki. “I’m getting the vibes again… This concert is going to be great!”

“Glad you’re enthusiastic.” He shoved down his own anxiety from having to perform in front of everyone. Because while she was excited, Hajime didn’t consider having to play in front of a crowd as easy as a class presentation.

She giggled. “Of course I’m excited! That rush just before you perform in front of the world… It’s just the best!” She did a little jump. “And I get to play with you too!”

He cringed of embarrassment, however he couldn’t deny he was happy too. “Yeah… I-I’m glad to be playing with you too.”

She smiled. “Aw~ You showed me your cute side!”

Out of reflex he said. “S-shut up…”

“And here’s your prickly side!”

He cringed hard as he felt a blush creep on his face.

He ended up being silent until the end of the song, too shy to say anything that Ibuki could bounce on.

When the song ended, Hajime heard someone call out to him. “Hey.”

He recognized the voice as Mahiru’s, after he turned around, she just held out her hand, as a way to ask if she could have the next dance. Ibuki, still watching, made an exaggerated surprised face and gasped. “A new challenger has appeared! Ibuki shall retreat…” After sneaking away a bit farther she breathed out:  _ “But only for now…” _ And she disappeared in the crowd.

Both Hajime and Mahiru awkwardly chuckled at her theatrics. The brunette then took the painter’s hand, signaling he accepted the next dance. They took their positions and Mahiru didn’t waste any time starting a conversation. “So… I read your little note.” Her eyes kept darting all over the place, like if she didn’t know where to look.

Already feeling a potential scolding, he tried to prevent it. “I’m sorry if I shouldn’t ha-”

She cut him off. “No that’s not it!” She cleared her throat. “Look, I read it, and you’re getting better.”

He sighed in relief. “I’m glad… sorry I’m not the best critic though.”

“It’s alright. Even if it’s not that great, hearing people’s genuine opinions is nice. And you need criticism to progress anyway.” She kept looking away from him.

Hajime couldn’t agree more, a workaholic like him knew very well the need of criticism. “The hardest part is to find  _ good _ criticism, I take it?”

She sighed. “Exactly… I hate it when people just give the usual: “Oh this is _so_ good.” or “You should paint more  _ amazing _ paintings.” It feels forced and shallow… I’m not asking for an in depth analysis, I just want something genuine!”

Hajime felt like he just made her angry for asking this question. “Sorry for asking…”

“Huh?” She panicked for a bit. “Oh no- this isn’t against you! I’m glad you told me what you think about my art! And… huh…”

Hajime raised an eyebrow. This was usually her tell when she wanted to ask something. “What is it?”

She cleared throat once again, and red crept on her face. “There’s… something I want to show you.”

“Oh?” It was probably one of her paintings. Was it a new work? Was one of her work completed? Did she finish the painting he saw last time? In any case... “Well, I’m looking forward to it.”

A smile appeared on her face for a second, before she hid it behind her tough act. “You better come when I tell you to alright!?”

“Of course…” He was still a bit intimidated by her bossy attitude, but he didn’t want to shrink into a corner anymore.

“You better keep your word!”

“I just told you I would…”

“Geez…”

He had no idea what he did to make her react this way, but it was alright. The two of them stayed quiet the rest of the dance. Mahiru’s steps were a bit rough, and she would sometimes over step. Hajime could still lead properly, but there was one or two times she stepped on his feet. She apologized when that would happen though.

After the dance ended, Hajime jumped, feeling someone grab his sleeve. After looking, it was just Mikan.

“Hum… Can I..?” She shyly asked.

Mahiru gave her a smile. “Yeah we just finished, you can go ahead.”

“T-thank you…” She murmured.

Hajime held out his hand for her to put her own on. He was quite happy to get attention though. Not too much however, just a bit from his friends. It was just right.

And they didn’t do a single comment on his outfit. That was welcome too.

Wait, come to think of it, Mahiru had a hard time looking at him for a while. Could it be..?

Nah. It was Mahiru, she would’ve said something if that were the case. And she saw him shirtless, she wouldn’t be bothered by this. Mikan wouldn’t be bothered either. She was probably hesitant to look at him because she was being shy, like always!

She was also a bit clumsy with her dancing. Hajime was used to it however, as they used to dance together a lot as kids, and she was  _ far worse _ at it at that time.

Like Ibuki and Mahiru before her, she tried to start a conversation.

“H-Hajime? I… hum…”

Another  _ “I want to talk about something” _ clue. “Yes?”

He felt her grip his hand. “I-It’s- I want to talk about something!”

Called it. “Then what is it?”

“No- Not right now… Later, but it’s… it’s really important!” He felt her shaking a bit. “Something… Something you should know!”

Not only did she say it was really important, he could feel it in her body language. Maybe it was the reason she was so weird this last few weeks? Thinking of which... “Actually, I have something I want to talk with you about too.”

She let out a little gasp.

He meant to ask her about her behavior since the boat trip, but he obviously wasn’t the most tactful person in existence, and Mikan was always busy patching up their other classmates. Maybe with that, they’ll finally have the perfect timing to discuss. She was still a bit shocked, so Hajime smiled to reassure her.

It seemed to have done the trick, as she smiled back and giggled.

They then spent the rest of the dance in comfortable silence, they both needed what they needed to say and simply enjoyed each other’s company. It’s another thing they used to do when dancing as kids. Since Mikan had trouble talking to him for a while after the incident, they would just be in silence and put each other at ease.

When the dance was over, they bowed to each other with a smile. Then the sound of Akane choking on her food echoed, and Mikan hurried to her side to give her a glass of water.

As it seemed to be a theme tonight, someone poked Hajime’s shoulder.

He turned around to reveal Nagito. And, surprisingly normally, held out his hand and asked. “May I have this next dance?”

Hajime smiled. “Sure.” He didn’t expect him of all people to be asking, but he wasn’t going to complain.

They put themselves in position and started moving to the rhythm. The white haired teen’s mouvement were clean and proper, with a few little awkward slips up here and there, but nothing the brunette couldn’t handle.

What really bothered him however, was the mistakes he started making himself. It was a bit outrageous, he could handle Mikan, but right afterwards he would almost step on the other’s foot.

It probably had nothing to do with the weird fleetings sensations in his stomach. He didn’t have time to acknowledge that stuff while there was dancing to do.

“Are you alright Hajime?” Asked the Luckster.

The brunette bit his tongue while trying not to mess up the next step. “I’m fine.”

The Lucky Student looked the other in the eyes. “Calm down.”

Hajime lifted his gaze to meet Nagito’s. The pale teen was smiling. The smile quickly put Hajime’s mind at ease, it always did, but it also reinforced the feeling in his gut. He should really figure out what that was at some point. It was starting to be really uncomfortable.

“Oh by the way, Hajime…”

“What is it?” The brunette for some reason, felt like his heart just rose.

Nagito smiled again. “Nice clothing.”

And then the swordsman's heart sank back down, and instead, a flush crept on his face. He instantly wanted to be saved from the new topic of the conversation.

His prayers were answered, as Kazuichi walked past them (with no partner of course). The pink magician sighed. “What is the womanizer Hajime doing dancing with a guy?”

The brunette almost wanted to start praying again, as he did not know if that topic was better or worse than the previous one. He sighed as well. “What’s wrong with dancing with a guy..? I’m fine with either a girl or guy partner.”

The two other boys turned dead silent. Until Nagito asked: “Can you repeat that again?”

Hajime raised an eyebrow and complied. “Huh… I’m fine with either a girl or guy?”

For some reason, the admission transformed the smile on Nagito’s face, awkwardly twisting it a bit, making him let out a little chuckle as a shade of red appeared on his cheeks.

Hajime had no idea why the weird reaction, but Kazuichi seemed to have understood as he said.  _ “Oh god Hajime’s power is spreading.” _

“What does that even mean..?” Breathed out the brunette.

He wasn’t going to get his answer, as there was a click, and everything turned dark.

Something downright shattered in the brunette’s guts. Like a switch was flipped inside his brain, a cliché flashback flashed before his eyes.

The dark screen, everytime a character was about to meet their end the screen turned black.

By instinct (and fear), he grabbed the nearest thing close to him. He didn’t know what he grabbed onto, and any noise was masked by the sound of a loud crash, like a plate hitting the ground and shattering.

This made Hajime even more scared, making him pull on whatever he had in hand. Pulling a bit too much however, whatever he was grabbing fell on him, and his back hit the floor.

It seemed the shock was enough for him to remember another thing.

Oh right. There was a blackout schedule because of all the setup Ibuki did with the magic lights.  _ Of course _ he remembered that.

This was the cue for the lights to turn back on. And to realize the position he was in.

Of course because the universe would have it, there was none other than Master Luckster himself sprawled on the brunette, face in his chest.

Quickly feeling everyone’s stares on him, even hearing a few giggles, he reacted like anyone would.

**“Get off!!”** He yelled.

This seemed to have brought Nagito back from wherever his consciousness was, and he quickly jumped off the other teen. Getting up and extending his hand to help Hajime get up.

The brunette bit his lip while getting up, still feeling the stares of others on him.

However, a loud scream was heard.

Everyone turned around in its direction, to see Akane and Master Imposter shocked.

“The- The-” They stuttered.

“The what!?” Asked Kazuichi.

They dramatically pointed at a table. “The meat is gone!”

* * *

How did this turn into a theft case..?

Because of the drama Akane and Master Imposter were throwing over the disappearing meat, Usami felt herself forced to intervene. And instead of letting everyone throw a fit, she tried to defuse the situation with a little game.

A simple search for the thief game, they’ll search for clues for a while, and Usami will use her magic to build a little class trial ground to see if the culprit can be identified.

At first, no one really wanted to participate, but Akane, Master Imposter, and eventually Master Nidai, Master Tanaka, Lady Nevermind, Ibuki, even Teruteru… slowly the enthusiast for witch hunting spread through the class, and before they knew it, the investigations were underway.

So here was Hajime, looking at the stains on the floorboards. The quicker he found the culprit, the quicker this insanity would end, and he could also change out of his costume.

Wait, after the class trial there was a concert. Well shoot. At least getting to it faster will still make it less painful.

Anyways, back to the case. 

The meat was on the table at the far end of the room, on that table was just the dish of meat, all of the tables have a very long tablecloth on them, if it weren't for the carpet beneath they could basically go through the gaps in the floor. However, the specific table the meat was on, was not on the carpet and had its tablecloth pulled off. Now lying on the ground next to the table. Part of the cloth was also slipping under the floorboards. There were also numerous stains on the floorboards close to the table as well, and shards of a broken plate.

After asking Akane for details, she said the dish was cooked by Teruteru, but was reserved for the moment of the concert. It was very thinly cut, and was the only thing on the table as well.

Hajime stored all of that precious information in his brain.

“Hey Hajime.” He heard behind him while he was kneeling down.

The brunette turned around to see Nagito, the harsh light reflecting on his white suit made Hajime blink a bit to adjust his vision. “What is it?”

“I see that you’re hard at work. Then would you mind coming with me?”

“For… what?”

“I want to hear everyone’s testimonies.”

The brunette slowly got up. “Well, sure but… you wouldn’t  _ need _ me with you to do it.” Sure Nagito was quite awkward sometimes but he could manage to ask this by himself.

“Well, I was pretty sure you would be interested in hearing it out too. Doing it together will gain time for both of us.”

“True.” Hajime got up and dusted his clothes.

They walked through the building in search of interesting information. Hajime already talked to Akane and told Nagito the knowledge she had. They found Master Nidai in the corridor and his story about the toilet, Lady Nervermind wondering about the door in the hallway, and Master Tanaka outside, vehemothly searching for a way to get under the dining hall’s floorboards, as his “Hell Hound Earring” had fallen through the large gaps. Afterwards, they found Ibuki just being herself in the hallway. Which meant jumping around.

“Oh? Hajime and Nagito! Another new challenger!” She proclaimed seeing the two of them walk towards her.

The brunette still had no idea what that meant but he rolled with it. “Well, this new challenger would ask you if you know anything in particular.”

Nagito continued. “More precisely, I wanted to ask if you heard anything during the blackout.”

Right. Hajime was too busy freaking out to recognize any noises aside from a shattering plate.

“Oooh~ Asking me for my ears eh? Ibuki shall tell you all she knows!”

She proceeded to describe the activity and voices she heard during the blackout. She heard Lady Saionji, Mahiru, Lady Nevermind, Kazuichi, Nagito, Master Impostor, Hajime, Akane and Teruteru. On its own, it wasn’t all that useful but this information might come in handy later once connected with other bits and pieces.

Ibuki giggled. “Oh, and Ibuki wanted to ask, what were you doing in the dark?”

With the smile on her face, Hajime knew what she was talking about.

Nagito turned to the brunette as well. “Actually I wanted to ask that too.”

Hajime could just feel the blush creeping on his face. He looked away, refusing to meet their eyes at his admission. “I-I got startled all of a sudden, so I grabbed what was closest to me…”

“Aww! That’s so cute!” Claimed the musician.

To make it worse, Nagito agreed with a smile. “It  _ is _ cute.”

Hajime could just feel the butterflies in his stomach party hard.  _ “Can we move on to something else please!?” _

“Oh come on! I needed to at least ask!” She said. “And everyone saw it, it’s not like it’s a secret.”

This party was just Hajime’s Humiliation Conga wasn’t it?

Their next stop was the storage room. Good for them, inside was more clues. There was Ibuki’s set ups with the lights with her magical items, which is what made the planned blackout occur, something that everyone (except Hajime) knew, so anyone in the class could’ve taken advantage of it.

The other thing was a tablecloth, a  _ stained _ tablecloth.

Nagito touched the stain with his finger, it was still recent, as the liquid stuck to his hand. “It’s probably from some type of food.”

Watching the liquid, being curious and wanting to confirm his suspicions, he grabbed Nagito’s hand. “Let me see.” He took a better look at it. And just to be sure of what it was, he instinctively licked the liquid on the white haired teen’s finger. Said white haired teen going completely rigid at his action. Hajime tasted the liquid, and confirmed his suspicions. “Yep, that’s meat juice.” However it tasted quite weird. Maybe it was because it was dry.

He turned to Nagito, who was still immobile as if containing an internal crisis. Hajime let go of his hand. And looked around some more.

There didn’t seem to be anything special elsewhere, so there was a good chance they were done here.

“Nothing else here, let’s go look in the kitchen.” Concluded Hajime.

He looked at Nagito, who was still in the same exact position than he did before. Hajime begged whatever god out there that the MC did not just crash.

“Nagito,  _ we’re going.” _

This seemed to have snapped the Luckster back to the world of the moving. “Oh, right.”

The Lucky Student followed Hajime into the kitchen. Here they met Teruteru, who explained how mad he was that his dish was stolen, and maybe now in the stomach of the perpetrator. He then latched onto Hajime, Nagito quickly got him off the brunette with a bucket of cold water.

Nothing was particularly interesting there, aside from some oil lamps. They were unusable however, as they were completely out of oil.

It’s on that note that Usami sounded the beginning of the class trial. She asked all of the students to go in front of the Massive Usami Rock on the central island. With a swing of her Magic Stick, she created them stairs that led into the rock, and down to a trial ground.

There were sixteen podiums, Usami sitting on the edge of the sixth. Every student stood behind the podium with their name and Usami signaled the start of the trial.

The first question came from Mahiru, asking if Usami knew who was the culprit already. She confirmed that yes, she did. He rmagic allowed to have full control, and view of the environment, so was aware of the movement of every single student. Glossing over how creepy that was, they moved on to the actual arguments.

They established that the meat was supposed to be on the far end of the table, and that the culprit had pulled on the tablecloth to make the meat fall on the ground for some reason.

This immediately brought suspicion on every person in the dining hall, the only ones with a rock solid alibis in there were Nagito and Hajime, who had felt each other and stayed close during the dark, Hajime refused to elaborate any further.

“Oooh~ So you took advantage? I underestimated you!”

“Stop that.”

Aside from that, Peko and Nekomaru also had an alibi, as they could confirm that one was in the bathroom for the entire blackout, and the other in front of the door the whole time.

“How did it feel doing… your business in the dark? Did you feel  _ excited?” _

“Seriously. Stop it.”

However, Hajime quickly came to the conclusion it was impossible for someone in the dining hall to have committed the theft, thanks to the tablecloth he and Nagito had found in the storage room. They theorized the culprit could have used the cloth to either protect themselves from a splatter, or use it to transport the meat. Maybe both.

However, that rayed a whole bunch of suspects on the list, this still didn’t give any indication of what could’ve happened. Master Tanaka took it as his cue to reveal his own set of information. He found a passage under the floorboards in the storage room, hidden beneath random boxes, and he used it to retrieve his “Hell Hound Earring”.

Hajime was quick to connect the dots, and proclaimed that the culprit simply stole the meat while under the floor. The others were quick to point out how impossible it was, but he quickly debunked their argument.

  1. The tablecloth was so long it went into the gaps of the floor, someone could have pulled on it.
  2. The meat was very thinly sliced, it could have gone into the gaps easily.
  3. Even in the dark, the culprit would have felt which table to pull on, as all the other tables were on a carpet, which meant there was only one tablecloth peeking out, making the task very easy.



With that established, that still left the question on how could the culprit have made their way to the storage room. It was dark in the hallway too. Hajime proposed the oil lamps in the kitchen. They were maybe empty now, but it was easily explained how that was the case, simply that the culprit emptied the oil after the deed, in a sink or something like it. But if there was a light in the corridor, there was a good chance Nekomaru, who was in the corridor, would’ve seen it. But the thief only needed to close the door in the corridor, in between the storage room and the dining hall, and none would be the wiser.

The events laid bare before them, all what was needed now was to point out a culprit.

Hajime took a deep breath, and slipped his finger across his sight, stopping on Teruteru.

“Was it you Teruteru?”

The class quickly hopped on the brunette’s accusation train, and asked Teruteru for answers.

The chef eventually yelled back. “I ain’t da theef! How do I be ab’ to get da dish through dem gaps?”

There was heavy silence for a second, only broken by Kazuichi asking: “Did anyone understand that?”

Usami provided an answer for him. “He said: “I’m not the thief! How would I be able to get the dish through the gaps?””

“True, that is a good question.” Pointed out Nagito. “However, I think we know the answer, right Hajime?”

“Yeah. Teruteru, you have plenty of tools in the kitchen to help you, and with your Cooking Magic, moving thinly sliced meat like this would be a breeze.”

Master Impostor interrupted. “I actually have a question about this. Where would he have hidden the meat? We didn’t find it after all.”

Lady Nevermind proposed a theory. “It would be possible for him to disperse the slices of meat at different spots. It’s so thin, a single one of them wouldn’t be hard to hide in between furniture.”

Akane shrugged. “Or he could’ve just eaten it! And I didn’t smell the things at all, it’s probably hidden somewhere already super smelly.”

Mahiru pointed out. “Like the kitchen? It already smells of food.”

Feeling himself cornered, Teruteru begayed. “D-Dat-dat- any could’ve hid’t ther!”

"He says: "Anyone could've hid it there.""

Fuyuhiko grunted. “Yeah, I ain’t takin’ his side or anything, but it’s true that anyone could’ve walked into the kitchen to hide the things.”

Hajime brought his hand to his chin. “That only works if Teruteru was in the dining hall.”

Ibuki pointed out. “But I  **did** hear him in the dining hall!”

“But that doesn’t mean he was literally  _ in _ the dining hall.” The brunette continued. “He could’ve just shouted from under the floor to give us the illusion he was in there.”

Teruteru kept on trying to refute the others. “Oi go’ not evid’!”

Usami translated. “He said: “Hey, you’ve got no evidence.””

Nekomaru crossed his arms. “True, how can we verify if he was there, anyone remembers?”

Everyone shook their heads. It seemed their memories post and past black out were fuzzy.

An idea struck Hajime. An idea he hated, but he was going to try anyway.

“Teruteru… If you were really in the dining hall when the lights came back…”

Hajime took a deep breath, not wanting to remember that specific memory but sacrifices are necessary for the sake of the truth.

“Then what was I doing at the time?”

The brunette heard Nagito choke on his own saliva and cover his mouth, hiding a flush and an amused smile on his face.

Peko nodded. “Indeed, I think everyone remembers this.”

“Dat- dat... it.. slipd' from ma mind’!”

"He says: "It slipped from my mind.""

Mikan asked shyly. “Y-you don’t remember..?”

Mahiru sighed. “Come on!  _ You _ of all people should know!”

Master Tanaka laughed. “It seems the cat of the netherworld has grabbed ahold of his tongue!” He struck a pose. “Now then! It is time to end this charade!”

To get everyone on the same page, Hajime decided to review the incident from the beginning. Once his long monologue was over, they all looked at Usami for confirmation if they got the right culprit.

Ibuki made noises of suspense as Usami prepared herself to give her answer.

“Correct class! It was indeed Teruteru! Good work!” She giggled.

Everyone sighed in relief. But the chef was almost in tears for being found out.

Akane was quick to ask. “Hey Teruteru! Why did you steal the meat!? Didn’t you cook it yourself!?”

The small teen was silent for a bit before crying out. “I messed it up!”

There was a beat of silence.

He continued. “I messed up its cooking! I still can’t believe it but- I accidently knocked the wrong sauce on it while I was cooking another dish!" Hajime connected the dots, this was probably why the saue on the tablecloth tasted funny. "I didn’t have time to do it again! And you were looking forward to it- I didn’t know what to do- I didn’t want to disappoint you guys! So I just… I just…”

“You just rolled with it, and then made it disappear. But you didn’t expect for it to turn into such a drama, isn’t that right?” Concluded Nagito. “When everyone started to get excited, to not appear suspicious you joined in, that’s why you were eager to hold the trial, it was just a facade.”

Teruteru sobbed. Master Impostor and Akane were speechless.

Hajime tried to apply some damage control, not wanting this to end on a depressing note. “Hey Teruteru? It’s alright.” He walked off his podium towards the small teen, and put his hand on his shoulder. “You messed up, we all mess up sometimes.”

Teruteru swallowed a sob.

Hajime continued. “Just make us another one next time ok? And even if we didn’t get to eat it, at least the other dishes were excellent. Right?”

Everyone agreed, especially Master Ipostor and Akane.

The chef let out a hiccup.  _ “You guys..!” _

Not a second later, he was in tears, sobbing onto Hajime’s legs. The brunette let him cry it out.

Hajime let out a sigh of relief. He was slightly envious of Teruteru, he wished he could also just let it all out like this, but he was fine with being the shoulder others could lean on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's just the first trial modified but IDC hjdfbhcdsj  
>  _I'm setting up more stuff uwu_ also you'll see the concert next time!  
>  _Damn I've actually don't have a lot to say since it's pretty obvious what I did her ehjdbhbd_  
>  Well, I gues I can at least say that yes, Ibuki made good on that outfit. I hope you like it at least.  
> I gave Teruteru his little spotlight, he deserves it.  
> Also let me tell you the chapters are only gonna get harder and harder to write for me... so please be patient hjdbvhds  
> I hope you enjoyed!


	12. End of The Route

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for the concert with Ibuki.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is pretty short, but I wanted to make this really focused. just.. it felt right that way.

As they checked the preparations for the concert in the old building, Ibuki quickly came to the conclusion she might have oversized her event for such an ancient place (why did she didn’t notice that sooner? Hajime had no idea.), and decided to move the material at the _actual_ music house on the third Island (why didn’t she organize the concert there in the first place? Hajime didn’t know that either.).

The brunette was already grunting at the idea of having to move everything there, but Usami worked her magic and moved all of it for them. Hajime never wanted to hug that stuffed bunny so badly before.

On the stage, the piano and harp were already tuned. Right now, Ibuki was making the final checks on her guitar and violin. They were going to play the image songs, Hajime was sticking to the piano while Ibuki would be switching between guitar; harp and violin depending on the song. The brunette was still amazed at her adaptability. He heard before that once a musician understood one instrument, it was easy to understand the others. He doubted that, but Ibuki might confirm that rumor.

They were both sitting behind the massive flashy curtain, they could hear their classmate chat while Ibuki was getting ready. She was carefully strumming on the guitar and readjusting the cords, while Hajime was changing just a little thing about his outfit.

Teruteru’s loud crying ruined his pants. So he had to make do with black shorts Ibuki was working on on the side. Feeling a bit too exposed, his musician classmate handed him over some black tights. So he was currently putting them on. He kinda disliked how it stuck to him. How did girls tolerate those things?

He was also trying to keep his mind busy. He was becoming nervous at the idea of performing by the second. He tried to compare it to class exposés but that was in his past life. Funny, his studious past self would’ve never imagined playing music in front of people that were not judges or music teachers.

He finally managed to get that tight ready and he sighed. Ibuki finished on her side as well. She slapped her guitar. “There we go! Ready to play?”

He tried to hide his nervousness. “Yeah.”

“Mmmmmh…” She got up and walked closer to him. _“Mmmmmmh…”_

“Wh-what?”

She suddenly rubbed her hands against each other before, for the brunette’s greatest surprise, she cupped his head in her hands.

This definitely freaked him out. And he guessed he probably looked really stupid.

Then Ibuki smiled and let go of him before yelling: “Nervousness **begone!”** She then slapped her hands on his cheeks.

“Ow-!”

She pulled her hands back. “Is it gone?” She curiously asked.

He rubbed his cheeks. That was her way of giving him encouragement, washing away his stress. It was maybe a bit weird and painful, but he appreciated the sentiment at least. “It- it left me with some pain but it’s gone…”

She struck a dynamic pose. “Good! Now we’re gonna start! Come on Hajime!”

“Alright.”

She pushed through the curtains like a superstar, and the class applauded her entrance. Hajime followed her in a more simple manner, but the class was still applauding. He could swear he also heard someone whistling. He had a good idea on who it was and he hoped they trip on their own feet

As he sat down he heard a loud crash. Seemed like his curse took effect.

He heard Mahiru say. “Are you alright Nagito!?”

Hajime stopped dead in his tracks. He wasn't sure the curse hit the right person or Nagito was actually the culrpit? Or his bad luck attracted it instead? He had no idea and it wasn’t the time for that.

The Ibuki put her guitar and violin down and sat next to the harp. While she was in the movement of sitting, she decided to sprawl herself on the seat and she waved at Hajime. “Come on!”

“”Come on” what?”

She suddenly stopped her mouvement and looked at him. “Do a sexy move! All popular musicians do it!”

_“What.”_

The giggles and encouragement from the crowd did not help his situation. Ibuki went back to her mouvement. “I’m doin’ it so you do it too!”

He grunted. Guess he had no choice, he was already thoroughly humiliated tonight, might as well go out with a bang. He tried to come up with something, and he vaguely recalled that one (and only) concert he was shoved into by his classmate in his previous life. He got up from the piano stool and put his hand on it while leaning above it, facing and looking right at the crowd, his face red from embarrassment. He could feel the part of his costume on his collar loosening up and exposing his collarbones. He cursed Ibuki’s fashion sense and he kept hearing whistling and cheers, he reassured himself it was probably for Ibuki. He slid his hand in between his thighs and slowly dragged it up, it tickled a bit before he heard the sound of the accessories of his shorts, then it tickled again when the hand slid across his stomach. When it arrived at his chest, it was a bit awkward to continue to slide across it, but he managed as he added his other hand into the mix. Once arrived at his face, he guessed he did what people called a “hair flip” with his hand.

He blocked the cheers out of his ears and went out of his way to not look at anyone in particular in the crowd (even if a part of him really wanted to look for a specific someone’s reaction). However a particularly loud: "Hey, wipe your nose!" echoed in his eardrums. Next to to him though, Ibuki seemed more than pleased and was whistling.

“Now can we move on to the songs!?” He begged.

“Sure! Are you ready folks? It’s time!” She proclaimed.

The brunette stretched his hands, and started the festivities with a slam on the keyboard.

They slowly went down each song. First was Master Impostor’s, it was a song that changed tone suddenly back to back, but kept similar keys all thoroughly. Then Teruteru’s, a cheerful traditional song with quite lewd lyrics. Mahiru’s, a warm song with sad motherly lyrics. Peko’s, firm, determined, a tale of a bodyguard. Lady Saionji’s, traditional, sweet, but with surprisingly harsh lyrics about a tragic story. Ibuki’s own, cacophonic, quite nonsensical but bursting with personality and encouragement. Mikan, soft, sweet, with a hint of darkness. Master Nidai’s, strong and empowering. Master Tanaka’s, mystical lyrics but a soft calm beat. Nagito’s, gentle but fragile, ending on a note of hope. Kazuichi’s, upbeat and goofy, but with a complex tone. Akane’s, powerful and quite chaotic, a story of family bonds. Lady Nevermind’s, strong, supportive, sometimes went a bit off the rails. Fuyuhiko’s, forceful and rough, but with surprisingly sappy lyrics.

When Hajime finished his final keyboard slam, he was exhausted. Ibuki was still raging to continue, but they just finished the last song.

For the brunette’s surprise, Ibuki announced. “And now, for the last one!”

The pianist was confused. He wasn’t aware of another song, so he made a signal to Ibuki for a break behind the curtains.

After announcing a little break to the crowd, once hidden behind the curtains, Hajime asked. “You didn’t tell me there was another song!”

“I thought you knew! It’s your song Hajime!”

His eyes widened. “You… made an image song of me?”

She shrugged. “Duh!”

This made Hajime feel conflicted. Ibuki managed to capture the other’s selves, but, what would his song sound like?

Because, it was hard to say if he had a _self._

This question always plagued his mind. Who he was. He was Hajime alright, but was he more like his old self of his previous life, or did he become a new person entirely? It was a while since he actually wondered about that, even if the question hung around in his brain all the time.

She slapped his shoulder.

“Hey, don’t worry. I wrote the song! It’s gonna be fine!”

“That’s…” He swallowed. “I’m not worried about the quality, it’s more like…” He hesitated to tell. But with how perceptive Ibuki was, it was probably just a matter of time until she knew. He took a deep breath before looking at the ground. “I don’t know how you could put me into a song when _I_ don’t even know who I am.”

She was silent for a beat before smiling reassuringly. “You know, when I play with you, Ibuki feels a particular feeling.”

He lifted up his gaze to meet hers.

“I feel like I’m close to remembering something very important, and I think it’s the fun of making something together with someone.” She pinched his cheek. “There’s stuff you don’t remember.”

He let out a short surprised noise. She probably learned about his “amnesia” through the guys.

“There’s stuff you’ll never remember. And that’s ok. Cuz you can’t forget yourself.”

He wanted to ask what she meant by that, and she seemed to have picked up on it as she continued.

“I don’t think there’s a “true self”. You’re constantly changing, the you of before is still the you of today, just with some more things onto it!. She let go of his cheek and put her hand on his chest. “Hajime is the Hajime standing in front of me right now!”

She had her hand just above his heart, and he could feel it warm up at her words.

“So it’s A-Ok! Just have fun!”

He didn’t really know why, but he felt emotions rising up, as well as some tears in his eyes. Hearing that was… moving to say the least.

That was probably how it felt to be acknowledged.

He nodded as he wiped away some tears. “A-alright.”

“Yay~! She exclaimed! Now allow me to play this masterpiece!” She wiped out a music sheet from her pocket and ran towards the scene, and she sat on the piano stool.

She turned to the crowd and announced. “Sorry to have kept you waiting! In no time, we have already reached the last song! This one is dedicated to our fellow try-hard!”

Hajime’s eye twitched. “Wow _thanks.”_

“But, that’s because he tries so hard that it makes us go forward! That’s how Ibuki feels!”

She slammed her hands onto the instruments.

“So everyone, hear out Ibuki’s feelings!”

Hajime didn’t really understand the feeling of the song. Maybe it was because it was his, or maybe his ears were not musically educated enough to understand Ibuki’s. It was a song about hardships, tough times, but finding someone to help you through it and move on to a better, new day.

Was it sappy that Hajime still wanted to cry? Something was being moved in his heart, like the song was releasing out sadness and anguish. Could Ibuki’s magic do that? There was hope in the song, but something in it was…

Sad. Someone was pouring suffering in it, letting it out for the world to see, but feeling better while doing so. It was bittersweet.

When the song was over, the entire class was in awe and applauded. Hajime arrived on the scene to bow to the class with Ibuki.

He held her hand before bowing, and he could feel her shake in his grasp.

“Are you ok?” He asked. “Do you want to sit down?”

“N-no.” Wait, was Ibuki stuttering. “More importantly, did you enjoy the song?”

Hajime smiled. “Yeah. I loved it. Could we play it together another time?”

She nodded. “Of course!”

She then looked away in the distance, and wiped something off her face. The brunette was growing increasingly worried. “Are… are you sure you’re ok?”

“Yeah!”

Hajime heard a sniffle.

“This… is enough for Ibuki.”

The sheet was still on the piano, it read “Ibuki of the future”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Interpret that how you will. I hope I got what I wanted across hjdbfjfvnj  
> Also folks, that next chapter is gonna be hella painful for me dfhvbfd please be patient...  
> Edit: A joke I wanted to put totally slipped my mind, so I'm adding it now!


	13. Not All Heroes Want Redheads

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a concert full of emotions, and after wrapping it up, someone wants to show Hajime something, like they promised that same night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _This chapter was physically painful to write you guys have no idea._  
>  **I am in anguish over here.**  
>  I wrote that stuff with Lily and Freesia from Guilty Gear in the ears, my emotions were at this level hjhbcdgj

After the concert, close to midnight, Hajime helped Ibuki and Usami put all the material back. They had to put some of the instruments in the backroom, he took the violin and Ibuki the guitar and he walked her back to her cottage. She let her with the instruments, and he waved her goodnight.

He made his way to his cottage, but in front of it was none other than Mahiru. She seemed to have been waiting for him.

He already had a grasp of what she probably wanted to speak about.

She put her hands on her hips. “You’re finally here!”

“Sorry. I was busy helping Ibuki and Usami.”

She sighed through her nose and walked up to Hajime.

“Wh-what?”

She puffed her cheeks and turned red before grabbing his wrist. “Just- come with me!”

The painter then pulled hard and guided Hajime towards the second beach of the second island.

All thorough she refused to look Hajime in the eyes. But her grip was determined, and surprisingly warm. He felt there was something deeper in her intentions, and it made him curious.

As they were getting closer to the beach, there were less and less lights from the buildings. So he and Mahiru took an oil lamp from the beach house. Hajime wished there was also something to cover himself in there, as it was starting to get really cold the more they approached the shore because of the wind. And news flash, he still didn’t change out of his show outfit. That was his first order of business once everything was over. At least he closed the button up he was wearing all the way.

On the beach, they ended in the same spot Hajime had noticed Mahiru paint before, and there was the painting she was working on.

Except, it seemed to be finished.

The redhead handed the oil lamp over to Hajime. While she was doing so however, she stared in his eyes. “I…” She cleared her throat. “I want to… I want to give you this painting.”

The brunette was startled. “Huh!? But- You worked really hard on this- shouldn’t I-”

She shook her head. “Y-you don’t need to pay me anything. I just wanted to give it to you.”

“I…” He didn’t know how to answer that. “Thank you…”

“Don’t thank me yet… just look at it already…”

“Alright.” He walked to the painting with the lamp in hand, to observe it better.

It was still the same as he remembered. The evening sky, the footprints on the beach, now there was a beautiful pink, blue, and orange ocean. Just breathing romantic atmosphere.

But that was not what was most striking in the painting. No.

It was that  _ he _ was in it.

Close to the edge of the canvas, standing in a set of footprints, the straight determined ones, was a painted Hajime in simple white shirt and black pants, looking behind him, as if retracing his traces in the sand.

Mahiru whispered up behind him.

“So…”

She took a deep breath.

“What do you think?”

The way she spoke that sentence made it very clear that that question had another meaning, Hajime was sure of it. But what meaning?

He looked at the painting again. The answer would probably be in there.

Mahiru had changed the painting, and went out of her way to put  _ him _ in it.

But what did that mean? Knowing Mahiru’s paintings, there was a hidden meaning to it. In Hajime’s opinion, that painting meant some kind of bittersweet love, or the universe trying to pull two people together. He even  _ expressed it _ to her. So why did she add-

Wait.

_ Wait. _

**_Wait._ **

Something sparked in the back of Hajime’s head. The inkling of a revelation. The spark lit a fire, and that fire quickly set the brunette’s face ablaze.

**OH.**

**_OH._ **

The realisation sunk hard in his stomach like an anchor at the bottom of the ocean. He swallowed hard as he came to the only conclusion his brain could come up with.

This... _This_ was a  _ confession.  _ A confession of  **_love._ **

He awkwardly shifted his balance from one foot to the other. He was uncomfortable. Very,  _ very _ uncomfortable.

But… happy.  _ Very _ happy. And  _ very _ flattered.

He never received a confession before. Or confessed to anyone. He felt attraction to people sure, but he never bothered dipping into romance. For him, feelings were a waste of time, precious time better spent on work, studying, other things.

He… didn’t really know what to feel. But there was one thing he knew about what he was feeling right now.

He… didn’t love her back.

He loved her as a friend, a comrade, a classmate and an artist.

He loved her motherly ways, her kindness and her paintings.

But he didn’t love  _ her. _ The girl Mahiru Koizumi.

Which meant, he had to reject her.

And that will hurt her.

Hurting people was a part of life. Just being born will hurt someone, existing will hurt someone else. The spot one had in life will be envied by someone else, bringing them pain. When one got a job, someone would miss their chance. Everyone hurted, and will hurt someone in the future. What made the difference between a good and bad person was at what degree one was willing to hurt others for one’s own sake.

Ultimate Selflessness didn’t exist. One needed to be selfish to live. If one wasn’t selfish, they wouldn’t even try to obtain food, a house, or a loved one, by fear that someone else wouldn’t get those because of their actions.

That was what Hajime believed in.

It didn’t stop him from feeling awful.

Hurting her was inevitable. He wasn’t willing to lie to her or himself to give her a false hope, and that route will just hurt her more. He knew what she wanted to hear was that he loved her. And that they could be together. It would make her so happy.

But he just didn’t feel the same way, saying all of that… would be a lie.

Hajime was maybe awful and inexperienced at this, but he was sure of one thing: That Mahiru didn’t deserve a lie.

“I love it.” He murmured.

He didn’t want to look at Mahiru. He didn’t want to see the look on her face. Especially if it was a hopeful look.

“But…”

He slowly turned around. A sad smile on his face.

“... not the way you want.”

He wanted to look away, but he stood his ground and looked at her in the eyes.

“But, it doesn’t mean that I won’t treasure it. This… is  _ amazing, _ and I’m  _ so _ happy you showed me.”

He bowed.

“Thank you Mahiru. And…”

He got up and stared at her face.

There was a tear in one of her eyes.

“I’m sorry.”

He kept staring at her softly. He expected anything at that point in return for his words. She had the right to be sad, or even mad at him. He was ok with her feeling this way.

Instead, she smiled and chuckled. “I’m… glad you like it.”

He didn’t say anything, he said all he needed to say.

“I’m… going to wrap it up and give it to you tomorrow.”

She kept smiling, but the brunette could tell she was in pain.

“You should go Hajime, it’s getting late. Ok?”

She wanted him to leave. She wanted to be alone.

And he respected that. “Alright. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She cracked a more sincere smile. “Yeah. Goodnight”

"Goodnight Mahiru." He started walking away, leaving her behind. He understood that she needed her alone time, to process what just happened. Hajime needed it too.

When he took some distance, he could hear her let out a hiccup, it didn’t take long for it to turn into loud and painful cries.

He swore to do something nice for her tomorrow, at least he was sure they would stay friends but… he wanted to at least show her he was happy that she felt this way in a more concrete way.

He learned something from Mahiru in that moment, that love wasn’t just the beautiful fleeting feeling he read in books, seen in movies or witnessed in everyday life.

Sometimes, love was just painful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _I am so sorry Mahiru baby I am so sorry-_  
>  That'll teach me to write a harem story  
> I pressed hard the "One conversation two meanings" thing... Make sme kinda feel bad fjhbukhujfj  
> Also this was probably the only for Hajime to understand an implicit confession. Had he had to actually logically conclude this was a confession, and Hajime maybe dense, his logic is rock solid.


	14. First Girls Don’t Always Win

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alas, this night was not the end of Hajime's troubles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH MAN HERE IT IS  
> ANOTHER CHAPTER OF PAIN  
> And another thing that OH OH OH i am anticipating you guys' reactions.

Hajime was tired. Physically and emotionally. He could still hear the painful cries of heartbreak echoing in his ears.

He was still on his way back to his cottage, feeling positively horrible. Not only because he felt like a criminal for breaking her heart, but he also felt incredibly stupid. If only he noticed it sooner, maybe he could have shut her feelings down before it got to this point.

Actually… that sounded even crueler.

There was a weight in his gut growing. He did not just mess up the route, he  _ stole _ it. And even worse, he  _ rejected _ it.

He was kind of a criminal, a thief.

He really was leech on this world.

Damn, now he wanted to cry too. But he couldn’t,  _ Mahiru _ was in pain,  _ she _ had the right to cry. He was the asshole that stole her heart and broke it. He had to swallow that pill like a big boy, and assume consequences for his actions.

So why couldn’t he stop the tears building up? Why did he feel like he was on the verge of a breakdown?

He felt his lips tremble, the lonely cold winds of the night crashing onto him in sheer silence didn’t help. He wanted something to happen. Anything, anything to keep his mind off the tears, something to convince his body to hold it in.

He heard footsteps. He was on the bridge towards the main island, and there were creaks of wood behind him.

He turned to see Mikan getting closer to him.

He had no idea if his prayer was answered or if he was cursed once again instead.

However that seemed to have done the trick, as he quickly wiped the tears off his eyes and swallowed, keeping it together. “W-what is it Mikan? Why’re you here so late?” His voice was still a bit shaky.

She was silent for a bit, clearly noticing him wiping away his tears, but deciding not to mention it. “I… I wanted to talk to you b-but… Lady Koizumi got there before me.”

Oh right, they did talk about having an important chat. Hajime told himself to keep it together and clear his mind. This made him realize that Mikan came from the same direction he did. Did that mean that she followed him..? He wouldn’t put it above her, back in their childhood days he could recall moments where she would literally chase him for Healing Magic.

Thinking of which...

The brunette cleared his throat. “So… can we talk now?” 

She nodded. “Y-you can start.”

“Alright.” He took a deep breath. He was being overly cautious about cleansing himself off the tears, but one couldn’t never be too cautious. “So… I wanted to ask, why are so… protective those times around?”

“Huh?”

“Like… on the boat. You said you’ll “give me tons of Healing”. That’s something you used to say when we were kids… So… what made it come back?”

She stayed silent for a beat. He watched her swaying from one foot to the other, as she brought her hands to her chest, eyes closed. It was her tells when she was trying to build up courage for something.

She eventually took a deep breath and spoke up. “There’s… things you should know. About the…” A beat passed. “About… the incident.”

Hajime swallowed. It was true he didn’t know that much about what happened, his parents didn’t want to talk about it, and he thought it was a bad memory for Mikan as well, so he never tried to bring it up too much or ask about it in detail.

“The incident, it’s…”

She practically yelled the next sentence.

“It was my fault!”

Hajime was speechless. “What..?”

“That day we… w-we were playing and at some point, you tried to pull my hair and my ears…” She shuddered. “It really hurt… I-I was really scared… s-so…"

She let out a little pained cry.

“I pushed you away… but I… I didn’t want you to fall down the stairs..!”

A new understanding hit Hajime  _ hard. _

If there was one thing he recalled about the incident, was that everyone thought he or Izuru seriously was dead for a moment. He wasn’t moving, and his heart had stopped.

But what if Izuru really had died in the fall Mikan caused?

It would make so much sense. This was why Izuru was no more, he died in that instant. And Hajime replaced him. This was also why he had no memories of Izuru, he was not just another person entirely, he  _ died  _ along with his memories.

That also meant that Mikan accidently killed her abuser, and she was still blissfully unaware of that fact. And she will probably stay that way. It was not like Hajime could tell her he was from another world.

This also explained her protective behavior as a kid… She  _ had _ to have felt responsible for his fall and amnesia. She was trying to make up for her error.

And Hajime didn’t blame her. Not in the slightest.

Actually, he thought that Nagito was right. This misfortune might have just been good luck in disguise, after all if that didn’t happen Izuru would still be in this world, causing pain to others left and right, especially her.

Hajime thought he was the first thing off script in this universe, but it seemed Mikan’s courage to fight back was the real kicker.

Mikan was terrified of what could be Hajime’s reaction afterwards, but he just chuckled.

“Well, that explains a lot…” He shrugged.

She was trembling. “You… Y-you’re not mad?”

He shook her head. “No. You’re not to blame. You tried to protect yourself from me, it was an accident, then you took care of me all this time, and building up the courage to admit that to me must’ve been really hard. So no,” He smiled. “I’m not mad, I’m really glad you told me.”

There were tears in her eyes. “Y-You- I-I…” She sniffled.

He sighed softly, he should be more straightforward. “Yes you caused that accident that day but it’s alright.”

He walked up to her and patted her head.

“I forgive you.”

It seemed to have been the right words, as she smiled, and it seemed to be more from tears of joy than anything else. He felt like she might’ve been waiting to hear those words for a  _ very _ long time.

He waited for her to calm down, as he had another question on his mind.

Once she had stopped crying, Hajime took a deep breath. “So… now, can you answer my question?”

“H-huh?”

“Why are you back to being so protective of me? I understood why you were this way back then, but why now? And also… Why are you telling me this now? Why reveal this secret today?”

She was immobile for a while, and she went back to trying to build up courage. “Because… I’m…” She closed her eyes and bit her lip before exclaiming:  _ “Because I’m jealous!” _

“... What?” It was the only thing he could say.

“I’m… I-I used to be the one to take care of you a-and now there’s… there’s other people l-like Master Komaeda and Lady Koizumi! A-and…” Her eyes darted left and right, refusing to look at Hajime. “I… I followed you tonight b-because I was waiting for the right timing to talk to you… and I… hum…”

Yep, she totally witnessed that confession. That caused him to blush and feel even worse for Mahiru, who had an unwanted witness to her heartbreak. At it seemed Mikan was worried as her post as Hajime’s personal nurse was in danger, which explained her sudden rivalry with Nagito and her protectiveness. It was literally her trying to assert dominance as the better medic. This reassured Hajime, it wasn’t some kind of PTSD or anything of the sort, that was at least good news.

“I…” She cleared her throat. “I’ve been wanting to tell you this for… for a  _ very _ long time… A-after seeing th-that, I just needed to tell you as quickly as possible!”

This… was ominous. Hajime swallowed hard as dread built inside his gut.

The dread only grew when Mikan grabbed Hajime’s hands in hers and looked right in his eyes, a shaky but determined look on her face. “S-so... “ She took a deep breath and Hajime closed his eyes in preparation for whatever was coming.

“I want to reestablish our engagement!”

It took a good 15 seconds for the information to go up to Hajime’s brain. He slowly opened his eyes as it finally hit his brain cells.

She just asked his hand in marriage.

It was not like he was new to marriage proposals (received a few like every noble, turned down all of them), but he  _ certainly _ didn’t expect that.

“H-hum.. can I ask why..?” He murmured.

Mikan cleared her throat before clarifying. “B-because I… I have f-feelings for you.”

He had to bite his tongue and breath hard through his nose to not have a total freak out. It was not like he was new to confessions (from  _ mere  _ **_minutes ago),_ ** but he  **_certainly_ ** didn’t expect that.  **Again.**

And it meant that once again, he had to turn someone down.

The thought crashed onto him like a piano from a stupid gag. It was a repeat of what happened with Mahiru… but probably even worse.

Mahiru was a fellow classmate, they’ve been friends for a few months, and she confessed in a simpler, more subtle way.

Here was  _ Mikan _ , a childhood friend he had known since  _ forever, _ and she asked him in  **marriage.**

And he wanted to turn her down. He loved Mikan, as a friend and practically a sister. She meant  _ a lot _ to him. But he didn’t feel that way about her.

He was once again hit with the realisation that she was hoping for him to accept, to say yes, that the two of them could be together forever. And she probably even had her hopes up, after seeing him turn down Mahiru and forgiving her for the accident.

And he was going to destroy this hope, along with another girl’s heart.

He stood by what he thought when he turned down Mahiru. He followed the same train of thought, hurting people was inevitable, Ultimate Selflessness didn’t exist, and Mikan didn’t deserve a lie.

That train of thought was maybe on familiar tracks, but it didn’t stop it from being the vessel of a long and painful journey to sadness.

Pain was inevitable. For her and him, as he didn’t take a single shred of pleasure saying the next words:

“I… I can’t accept…”

He could see it, Mikan’s eyes turning wide, and tears appearing on their corners.

He took her hand in his. “Mikan, you mean a lot to me. I… I don’t want to hurt you, so you deserve the truth… I just… I just can’t accept… It’s not because of the incident, or because you did something wrong, you did  _ nothing _ wrong.”

He bit his lip.

“It’s... just me.”

It was always his fault wasn’t it? He was the one that got the route of the rails, that stole them, and shattered the girl’s hearts.

It was all his fault.

Mikan was crying in silence. She must’ve been in so much pain. The man she must've loved for _years_ just turned her down after all, how could she not be in immeasurable pain?

Still, Hajime wanted to ease her pain, even if it was just a little.

He hugged her. “Mikan, I’m grateful. I’m very,  _ very _ grateful for everything. And I hope we’ll still be friends. I wouldn’t blame you if you hate me. I just hurt you… You have the right to despise me, but know that I don’t hate you at all. You’re still the Mikan I always knew, and I care about you.”

He didn’t just say that to make her feel better. He meant every single one of those words, he truly was extremely grateful.

After all, if it weren’t for her, he would’ve never been brought to this universe in the first place. And his existence would have truly ended the day he was hit by that truck.

She placed her hands on his back and gripped his clothes, before starting to sob loudly.

Hajime gently murmured to himself:

“Thank you Mikan, for bringing me to this wonderful world.”

* * *

After such an emotionally painful night, he had a painful nightmare in return.

It was  _ vivid. _ More than ever before. And this time, he could recall what he was hearing all thorough:

_ “It has to be this way.” _

He woke up in a cold sweat. It was still dark out, so he must have not even slept for a few hours. His mouvement awoke Nagito, like always. And the white haired teen could tell by the terrified look on his face that this dream was a bad one. He hurried out of bed and got on Hajime’s.

Following their routine, the brunette started explaining what he saw, or heard. “It… it was… I can actually recall it… there was a voice saying: “It has to be this way.””

Nagito brought his hand to his chin. “An idea what it meant?”

“No clue!” Hajime held his head. “And, the hands…”

“The black ones right? The crawling ones?”

The swordsman shuddered. “Yeah,  _ those. _ They were not just black, on the end of the fingers there were…” He tried remembering carefully, but his head started to throb.

Noticing the other’s pain, Nagito sat next to him and put his hand on his shoulder. Hesitant at first, but he started squeezing reassuringly.

Hajime felt like his hand was burning him beneath his nightly clothing, but in a good way. He eventually remembered the glimpse of the nightmare that stayed in his memory. “At the end of the hands… there was red.”

“Red… huh…”

Hajime was at least positive it wasn’t blood. For some reason blood was pink in this world after all (he blamed it on censorship). “Like… nails? Red nails?”

“Your aggressor had nail polish? That is… how should I put this…” Nagito searched for the right words. “A detail too precise to just  _ be _ here. That’s how I feel.”

Hajime felt the same way. He had the same nightmares ever since the boat, it getting more and more violent and vivid everytime.

This time, he could actually remember it. Which meant that if these nightmares were bad omens, the threat must be very close.

He bit his lip and clenched the sheets with his hand. Anxiety was building in his stomach.

He felt something cold flutter on his hand. He looked to see Nagito hesitate to put his own on top of Hajime’s, so his touch only resulted in a ghostly feeling.

The feeling of dread was replaced by butterflies, and, while looking away, he leaned a bit in the touch, as his way of giving the other the ok.

The touch invaded the top of his hand, the more the cold spread the warmer he felt. He really needed to put a name on this feeling eventually, but at least, it seemed it did the trick in chasing his anxiety away. And tonight, he really felt like he wanted something nice and painless. Just a little bit.

After some minutes spent in comfortable silence, Nagito spoke up.

“Hajime?”

“What is it?”

Nagito, actually breathed in before speaking again. It was not in his usual character to prepare himself before speaking. A little sting of fear poked at the brunette’s stomach.

“I have an important question to ask.”

Hajime shrugged. “Ask away.”

“You’re not from here are you?”

The brunette raised an eyebrow. “Of course I’m not from this islan-”

Nagito interrupted him while shaking his head. “No.”

He pointed at Hajime.

“I’m talking about this  _ world.” _

Saying that Hajime was mortified was an understatement, but before he would come up with a rebuttal, Nagito continued.

“Oh don’t worry, I understand.”

He laughed. And looked at the brunette with soft eyes and an angelic smile while squeezing his hand gently.

“I’m from another one too, we’re the same in that regard Hajime.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve been waiting for a long time to post this chapter, just so I could watch you guys freak out about it with how much you've anticipating an explanation hjdnhbdj  
> Also _I am so sorry Mikan sweetie I am so sorry-_


	15. New Game+

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nagito owes Hajime some explanations.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH MAN THE CHAPTER A LOAD OF YOU HAS BEEN WAITIN FOR IS HERE  
> ITS TIME FOLKS

“You… what..?” The brunette’s astonishment was too great for him to be able to phrase words properly.

Nagito closed his eyes and let out an amused huff. “Right, I do owe you an explanation. You want me to clarify my words right?”

Hajime eyes darted around the room before being fixed back onto the other teen. He then nodded slowly.

“Right! Now… where shall I start…”

He nonchalantly looked away in the distance towards the wall, still holding Hajime’s hand.

“Probably from the beginning. Now, I don’t really remember my previous life all that much. Because well...”

He kept looking away, but there was a hint of pain in his eyes.

“The world I came from was what one would call, apocalyptic.”

Hajime raised an eyebrow.

“I assume we came from different worlds, as I can tell that you are… let’s say better adjusted than me! Even I can recognize I am not that normal.”

“Wait _wait…”_ Worry grew in Hajime’s voice. “What do you mean apocalyptic?”

“I mean the End Of The World As We Know it sort of world! I don’t remember it too much, as my brain preferred to forget those traumatic memories, even if the “experiences” of those memories still stayed within me. But it was an apocalypse, cities in ruin, red sky, fighting to survive, murder, theft and the like as the norm… I don’t even know why it turned out this way in the first place! It just happened!”

That at least explained why he was unphased by anything thrown at him. But… “Are… are you-”

“Am I ok? Yes.” He shrugged. “It’s in my past. I have a new life now. My misfortune of dying gave me a new life! If that’s not good luck of all things!”

Out of instinct, Hajime said: “You too..?”

“Oh, so you did die too in your previous life. But yes, I died!” He said it in a way unbefitting of talking about one's own demise. “I think I was… stabbed? Or poisoned? I don’t remember. Anyways, my life was cut short at the tender age of 16.” He then turned to look at Hajime, subtly asking about his own experience.

“I…” He swallowed. “I was hit by a truck.”

“An accident huh?” The smile faded from his face. “That’s really sad.”

“Not as sad as being murdered.”

“Are you sure? At least my death was in someone’s plan. An accident is a tragedy for everyone, including the one that caused it.” With his other hand, the one that wasn’t holding Hajime’s, he patted his shoulder. “I take it you died young too.”

“Yeah…” He stared at the sheets. “I was 16 as well…”

He felt Nagito rub his shoulder. The pale teen could tell the other felt a lot more about his death than he did. “And then… I woke up as a 5 year old in a bed. I had a new name, a new life…”

Right, he probably wasn’t like Hajime who got into a character with the same name. “Hum if I can ask… what was your name before?”

“I don’t remember! I recall some inkling of being called Servant though. I don’t exactly… like it.”

“Oh- sorry for asking-”

“It’s fine, I’ve got a new name I like a lot more!” He softly sighed. “So I woke up, and it seemed my new parents were sure I died just before.”

It was easy to guess what happened. “The original kid died from illness?”

“It would seem that way. So I understand how you feel. After all, I had “amnesia” after that too.”

This… also explained why he wasn’t shocked at hearing that Hajime had amnesia. Wait… but if that was the case… How did he tell that Hajime was reincarnated too?

“Then I just… tried to enjoy this new life. And… it’s not that bad.”

All through his speech, it seemed clear that Nagito was unaware of one fact about this world.

“Hum, Nagito?”

“What is it?”

“Well…” Hajime cleared his throat. “This world isn’t just some fantasy world for me…”

The pale teen raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“It’s… it’s right out of a dating simulator game from my world.” He slowly pointed at Nagito. “And… you’re the protagonist that’s supposed to get all the girls.”

The white haired teen was silent for a beat, before a puff of laughter escaped his mouth. He held it back with his hand.

“Why are you laughing..?” Asked the brunette, ignoring the nice sound of said laughter.

“I’m supposed to get all the girls you say? Well that’s tragic, as I have no interest in women!”

_ “Ah-” _ His sudden declaration made Hajime flustered. He too hid his face, a blush beneath his hand. “It’s… sure ironic.”

The other sighed. “A homosexual gets reincarnated into a world where he can get all the girls.” He let out another laugh. “I find that positively hilarious.”

So, all along, Nagito had 0 interest in anyone in the first place.

So Hajime was worrying… about stealing the girls... for nothing.

Well he felt exptremely stupid.

Hajime smiled awkwardly. “Sorry Nagito…”

“It’s alright. Bad luck is the entry fee for the fortune afterwards. Look at us, we died, but we got to be here, and personally, I was never this happy before.”

“I… guess.” To try and lighten up the awkward mood, he joked. “But it seemed your luck didn’t take your preferences into account!”

“I wonder.”

He turned to face Hajime, letting go of his hand, but getting closer.

There was a bit of deviousness in his tone. “You know, now I have a theory as of why I’ve reincarnated into this world specifically. You said this was a dating simulator? Right?”

As the other got closer, Hajime was slowly scooting back. “H-hum… Yes?”

“Then I think I understand exactly the reason why.”

Nagito was purposely building up the suspense, this annoyed the brunette a bit, but he had no time to be angry when the other teen was still getting closer. “Which is..?”

“I think it’s because…” He let out a soft sigh. “I remember that there was something I wished for, as I lay dying.”

“A… wish?” Breathed Hajime out. Maybe it was because of the heat of the moment, but he had some recollection of having wished for something too.

The white haired teen fixed the brunette’s face. 

“I wished to have someone to love.”

Hajime’s back was pressed against the pillows, he could no longer escape the soft gaze on him. Nagito knew that, and slid himself up close and personal, one hand against the brunette’s chest.

“Say... What did  _ you _ wish for Hajime?”

“I- hum…” His heart was hammering in his chest too hard for him to order his body properly and answer.

“I could always tell you know.” Continued the white haired teen. “Right from the start, I sensed something special about you. You were not from here, just like me, I could tell.” He closed his eyes. “There’s a part of darkness inside me. Some people can tell, and refuse to dig deeper by fear of what they could find. Too scared to get a glimpse. But you don’t care. You carry this darkness inside you too. You understand my feelings, and go out of your way to share your kindness with me…”

He slid his hand on Hajime’s cheek, the brunette could feel that Nagito was warm too.

The pale teen opened his eyes. “Remember what I told you? Misfortune might just be the payment for the good luck that’ll come later.”

His gaze was fixated right in Hajime’s. There was something incredibly soft in those eyes, his pupils were dilated, their beautiful grey tone was glowing, reflecting the brunette’s mismatched eye colors.

“If dying was the price to pay to meet you, then…”

His next words were a warm breath against Hajime’s lips.

“It was more than worth it.”

It took some time for the brunette to register the sensation. There was something warm pressed against him, he was being pulled, and something wet and soft was against his lips.

It was by observing the other teen’s blushing happy face that he understood.

He was being kissed.  _ Nagito _ was kissing him.  _ Very _ tenderly and amorously.

Hajime clutched the sheets beneath his hands, his entire body frozen from shock. The butterflies in his stomach were partying hard. He could feel incredible heat on his face and heart as it was beating at ridiculous speed.

He was also… happy. This was making him _very_ happy. He did not want to pull away.

And he was very ok with letting himself be kissed by the white haired teen before him.

Did… did that mean he was..?

His train of thought was interrupted when he felt something undo his shirt button. A reflex made him jerk away.  _ “Wow-” _

One of Nagito’s hands was on his shirt, still undoing his clothing. “What is it?”

“Wh- _why are you-”_ He was too embarrassed to make correct sentences.

Nagito raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t it obvious?”

“Hum... _no?”_

Feeling Hajime’s sheer confusion, Nagito decided to be as blunt as humanly possible. 

“I’m undoing your clothes so you can fuck me into the mattress.”

Hajime’s inner temperature spiked to one equal to a volcano.

The brunette only managed to get a grasp on his voice enough to breathe out a high pitched: _“Why..?”_

“Because I love you and I want you. I thought I already made this clear.”

And with that Hajime shut down. His brain unable to comprehend the situation he was in.

Nagito noticed the other’s lack of response and lack of strength in his body. “Hajime?”

He shook the others unconscious form. No answer.

“Well. It seemed I maybe went a  _ little _ too fast.”

* * *

Hajime was running. He didn’t know where he was, but it was dark, he could barely see in front of him.

He kept telling himself to run and run, but at some point his legs refused to move any further.

He felt something grab his ankle, it was a slithery dark hand, with barely visible white outlines to discern it from the back all around him. On the tip of the hand’s finger were stains of red.

A voice echoed through the environment.

_ “It has to be this way. _ ”

Hajime couldn’t scream or move, he felt another limb grab onto him.

And then more and _more-_

_ “It has to be this way.” _

He felt himself sinking into the ground, dragged down by the arms, hands and fingers on him.

His vision was slowly fading to black, and one last sentence rang through his ears:

_ “Join me.” _

He woke up in a cold sweat, shaking awake Nagito, who had decided to use the brunette's chest as a pillow after Hajime knocked himself out out of sheer embarrassment.

Everything stopped. The world stopped in Hajime’s eyes.

He could feel it. Something was close, dreaully close, and was coming for him.

“She’s here..!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Maybe I went a little too fast." _*vine voice*_ **YEAH NO SHIT HONEY**  
>  Nagito fails to get laid The Chapter  
> We maybe got a confession out of the way, but the troubles have only just gotten started... _It's about to go down_


	16. Continue?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final battle has started.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took me so much time, uni is kicking my ass hard and writing this was really hard hjcbhds

It had started.

When Nagito and Hajime scrambled to get dressed and the latter to get his weapon, they started to feel a rumble on the ground, and a pressure was growing in their guts.

Once outside, they quickly understood what was happening. The sky had turned red, and there were a myriad of black and white dots in the sky.

The other students eventually appeared as well, Usami too in a hurry.

The plushie clearly panicked, but tried to keep it cool in front of her students. “Everyone! Please stay back and find somewhere to hide! I’ll handle this!” She turned towards the swarm, slowly coming closer to shore. “I’ll protect everyone!” She waved her magic stick, and rocks throughout the island lifted up in the air, and threw themselves at the creatures, creating holes in the swarm.

“No way we are falling back!” Yelled Kazuichi. “I won’t let those assholes ruin my first school trip!” He started building a suit out of the dirt below his feet.

Master Tanaka laughed. “A challenge! Come at thee fools! You will taste the powers of the great Gundham Tanaka!” He too started using his magic and summoned bird spirits.

Lady Nevermind followed their examples and stepped forward. “We will not back down! We will protect ourselves and fight against the enemy!”

Everyone cheered at her declaration. They pulled out their weapons or magic, and faced towards the incoming enemy. Some of them pulled back however, like Mikan and Teruteru who had passive magic, they ran towards the communication tower to warn the main school of the sudden attack using the magical items there.

Descending upon them were dozens upon dozens of flying black and white bears, Monokumas. The students and Monomi all attacked left and right to push them back, however, more and more were on the way, and they needed to quickly fall back to a better defensive location.

The castle on the fifth island was the better pick. Usami and Lady Nevermind ordered a strategic retreat and everyone started running towards the castle. To protect them from flying attacks, Usami and Kazuichi created a dome above the bridges out of dirt as the other ran.

“Wait!” Screamed Hajime. “What about Mikan and Teruteru!?”

Peko replied. “Someone needs to go fetch them, they are probably still on the main island communicating with the school.”

The brunette was quick on his feet. “I’ll go! You guys go ahead I’ll join you afterwards!”

“Wait!” He heard Nekomaru babble out, but the swordsman was already out of sight.

Monokumas quickly noticed him and picked on him. The main swarm was already busy with the main group, so only a few came to assault him. His sword was quick to deal with them however, slashing and shredding at them as he ran towards the communication tower at the landing site.

He crashed his shoulder against the door to open it with a slam, and closed behind him in a hurry to keep the bears outside, at least for a minimum amount of time.

He called out to Mikan and Teruteru and started climbing the communication tower. There were no answers, making worry grow in his stomach. Once at the top, there was no one. He checked the register of the communication crystal to see if the call was made, to maybe trace the others' steps, and it seemed they managed to transmit the message to the school.

Hajime sighed in relief. There wasn’t any sign of struggle, so they probably just did the transmission and left, and they just missed each other along the way.

The brunette turned around to retrace his steps, but he was interrupted. A laugh echoed around, a laughter he recognized and dreaded.

Before he could blink, his instinct screamed at him to get down. He obeyed the instant he felt it, and as he did, the roof of the tower flew off, sliced away by some kind of dark purple shade.

“Huh. You’re better than I thought!” He heard echoing.

He knew that voice, it was the one from his dreams. “Enoshima!” He called out.

“It is me!” She proudly claims. She slowly came into Hajime’s view. The witch was sitting down on a black and red throne, flying in midair through magic. “But we already know each other don’t we?”

Hajime huffed. “Come down here and face me!”

She faked astonishment. “Look at him! The hero wants a one on one with the villain!” She laughed. “Oh but what I am saying…”

She chuckled again.

“Aren’t _you_ the villain?”

He felt one of his legs shake at her sentence, but he was determined to not show any signs of weakness, so he still stood straight, blade ready and eyes fixated on her.

“Isn’t that moment where you should ask “How do you know about that!?” Or something? Aw… I always wanted someone to say that to me. Even if I _am_ an all knowing witch why can’t people show some emotions? Aside from sheer despair at the sight of me of course!”

The brunette clicked his tongue and murmured. “You know nothing about me.”

“But I do!”

Hajime rolled his eyes, he should’ve known she could hear him. She waved her hand, sending Monokumas his way.

While the swordsman was taking down the enemies, she elaborated on her previous statement. “I know so much about you! Despair gives you a lot of power you see? I can see through people’s pain… their suffering… get a glimpse deep down in their minds…” She shrugged. “And we already met after all! All those years ago…”

Her declaration distracted Hajime for a second, which almost cost him as a Monokuma slashed its claws his way. He managed to block in time, his sword and the claws clashing with sharp metallic noises.

“Careful! A single moment of hesitation can cost you!” She taunted. “Now let me get back to my monologue…” She cleared her throat. “After my wonderful little Future Foundation assault, and that little guy stopped me with his “hope” thing, I knew I needed something more… efficient. Nothing was more effective than despair, but I needed a little _boost._ This is when I tracked your little Future Magic! _Ah~_ such good memories! And I placed a little spell on your soul while I was at it. You know, just in case. So you would obey my every order!”

Hajime pushed away the Monokuma as a chill ran down his spine. He didn't remember any of that of course, as she bonded _Izuru,_ not him, but he was still disgusted by her actions.

“But oh look! You don’t obey my orders!”

The brunette almost grinned, perfectly knowing why her “soul bind” or whatever didn’t work. In the rush of hope, he slashed the troublesome bear out of sight.

“How strange isn’t it? My magic is almighty! So how can a bind placed directly on the soul not work? _Unless…”_

She leaned in on her throne.

“Unless you’re an _entirely different person_!”

A feeling of dread moved his heart, and through shock, the grip of his sword lessened, and a Monokuma knocked his sword away.

“I am _so_ right! But of course I’m right. I _see_ it after all.”

Hajime scrambled and rolled towards his sword. “What the fuck do you know!?”

“Finally a reaction!” She applauded. “But let _me_ ask _you_ a question first.”

He got back up, his sword readied again. “Keep your questions for yourself!”

Her voice turned cold. “And keep your complaints for yourself.” She snapped her fingers. From it resonned a wave of black magic, as it passed over Hajime, he could swear he felt the blood in his body throb in sheer horror.

She sputtered and spit out saliva out of reflex, feeling like something dark invaded his body. However, there was nothing. This was just his organism reacting to the sheer amount of despair contained in her magic.

“Now I hope you’re in a better mood to listen! Now tell me, where did I get all this despair?”

Indeed, Enoshima needed someone to pour her despair out of to fuel her magic. Hajime considered that an easy question. “You just sacrificed someone and used their death!”

She chuckled. “Half true. I _am_ using the despair of death, but I didn’t kill them personally.”

He was getting tired of her riddles. “Damnit why’re you even telling me this!”

“Because I love tormenting people!” She laughed with a wide smile. “A hobby of mine! Speaking of which, guess who I’m using! Hint: I’m looking at them _right now!”_

Anxiety shook his legs. He knew where she was getting at, but he refused to admit it.

“Liar! I’m not-”

“Yes you are! I know _everything!_ Didn’t I tell you? Despair gives me the door to the mind! And you have _sooo_ much despair to go around.”

All of a sudden he felt overwhelmed by his enemies, the bears’ number didn’t increase however, it was just a sensation. But it made his teeth grit nonetheless.

“All souls have darkness in them, but those who see the ultimate despair, the despair of death have despair that could feed an entire army! I wanted to use that white haired idealist at first, as there was some tasty darkness deep in his guts, but his stupid hopefullness kept me from getting any of it.” She shrugged. “What a killjoy.” She brought her attention back to Hajime, who was struggling. “The only problem with the despair of death, is that you’re usually not alive for long when you feel it. Because, well, you die! So sure, I have something to feed my lovely Monokumas, but only temporarily. But _you_ however…” She clapped her hands. “Not only do you have that sweet death inside you, but you are _still_ in despair!” She leaned forward. “Aren’t you _scared~?”_

He didn’t answer.

“I sense that you’re scared. Scared of dying, scared of others, scared that you’ll wake up at the tip of someone’s sword one day…”

“You’re _desperate_ to stay alive. That’s what it tells me.”

Hajime could feel his lip tremble, denial building up in his gut and the urge to puke surging. “I’m not-!”

She ignored him and continued. “When I look into your death… I keep seeing the same image, hearing the same voices.”

He struggled, Monokumas appearing left and, right. He slashed and slashed… He could hear something creak in his mind.

“”Do better.” “If only you had a knack for it.” “It’s too bad you're so _average.”_ “There’s _nothing_ special about you.””

“Shut up!” The creaking was getting louder and louder.

“You worked _so hard._ You are so _desperate_ for people’s love. A poor little puppy wagging his tail and doing tricks to please its master. Too bad you’re a bastard. People only want pure-bred those days.”

“I’m not! _I’m not!”_ Like a tear in a sheet of paper, it started to stretch into his brain.

“Oh but you are! Because you know what I see? A poor boy… exhausted. Hurrying. Too tired, hungry, sleepy, and overworked to see the monster of metal appearing right in front of his face.”

“I- _That’s-”_

“Your death is just like you. **_Hopelessly, pathetically average.”_ **

Something broke. Shattered.

He wanted to move. He wanted to fight, but his muscles refused. His sword slipped out of his hand. He wanted to scream, to refute, to _do_ something. But his body just stopped moving.

 _“Aw…_ the _poor_ little puppy fell…”

There was silence. He could feel something cold on the side of his face.

“How _sad._ You keep struggling but fate only gives you despair.”

Something was lifting him up. He was staring at something, two massive blue dots looking back at him.

“But it doesn’t have to be like that.”

He felt crushed, something pouring in his lungs like water.

 _“Give in._ Give into despair. Accept it. Embrace it. You’ll feel better afterwards.”

It was drowning him, he couldn’t talk, he could barely think or breathe.

“Nothing will hurt you anymore. You won’t have to put on a face for the world to see, you can share your despair with the world. Make it _feel_ it.”

He couldn’t tell if he was alive or dead anymore.

“Come on Hajime. _Join me.”_

Was he dying? His vision was feeling itself up with darkness, like countless hands were crawling all over him. It hurt to breathe, it hurt to stay alive.

How long has he been running away from his pain? He used this world as a painkiller, Ibuki even helped him ease his sorrows, but he never actually confronted it.

He was scared. He was so scared. But he pretended he wasn’t. He covered himself in work, sass, other thoughts, it was only when anxiety would overtake him that he was thrown once again into the abyss of the truth of his situation.

The abyss huh? Was it where he was going? His vision was complete black, he felt cold, he felt dead.

This was it he thought. He lost. The doom he tried so hard to avoid was here, given to him by the sweet poisonous words of a woman of despair, overwhelming him with her magic to render him a mindless puppet she could use. Even if he didn’t have the magic she was searching for, she could still use him as eternal fuel, a sac of meat to suck darkness out of until his body would shut down.

How pathetic, he wanted to fight against this fate, he tried so hard. He made up with Mikan, he helped Peko and Fuyuhiko, he became friends with his classmate, he helped Mahiru with her work, he played with Ibuki, he tried to befriend Nagito, and it seemed they even crossed into romance territory for a while…

He wanted to think about many more things, he had regrets, he had people he wanted to think about, he had excuses, prayers to send out before slipping away, but his eyes were heavy and he felt sleepy. He couldn’t stop his eyelids from falling down. He was waiting for the final screen, the last thing a player would see before retrying.

The Game Over.

But he had no more continues.

  
  
  
  
  
  


He felt something. What was it? A shock? A vibration?

He felt it again. It was a light, there was something shiny in the distance.

Out of sheer instinct, he tried moving towards it, somehow.

His eyes were closed, but he could visualize his hand reaching towards it, his finger brushed something warm.

All of a sudden, he gasped and his eyes flew open.

He quickly registered everything that was happening around him. He was trapped in dark hands of Enoshima’s creation, she was turned away from him and was clearly annoyed, looking down on something at the bottom of the tower.

“Leave him alone!” “Let him go!” “What do you think you’re doing!?”

He heard voices. Familiar voices.

“Unhand him at once!” “You better get your hands off him you bitch!” “I-I won’t let you hurt him!”

There were people worried about him, calling out to him.

“Hey!” “Can you hear us!?” “Hajime!”

That’s right. There’s people that… wouldn’t want him dead.

They didn't want him dead.

They never did.

The chance of him getting killed by them... was none all along.

Because…

In the moment, a memory reappeared in his mind.

He was crossing the street, hands full of books with blurry covers, eyes half open, his body exhausted and anxious because of tasks he needed to do. He thought of the people he didn’t want to disappoint, his parents, his teachers, possible employers…

In that moment, he wished for something, the thing Chiaki was trying to give him.

He remembered what he wished for.

The one thing hard work never gave him.

He wished he was loved.

And there were people giving him that wish _right there._ People had _told him_ they _loved him,_ and built up the courage to tell him that.

He even reciprocated the feelings of one of them.

What he wanted so much was _right there._

And Enoshima was in the way of that wish.

And he wanted her _out of his sight._

With that thought, something surged from inside him, in a split second, he was freed, feeling energy bursting from his every pour as he let out a scream.

He didn’t know what was happening, but all he knew was that he was back.

“Wh-what!?” Exclaimed Enoshima. “How!?”

He took a deep breath. He was alive, he could hear his friends gasp in surprise and some started to cheer.

Enoshime built some confidence back. _“Ah!_ You can’t struggle! You know your fate! You’re destined to join me!”

God he was _so annoyed_ with her. There were no words to describe how **done** he was with her crap.

So instead, he demonstrated by shoving his fingers in his mouth.

“... What are you doing?” Wondered the witch.

Hajime responded like he always did: _honestly._ “Trying to puke. Because that sounds like a better option than listening to your bullshit.”

Her eyes turned wide. Seemed like the witch didn’t expect such a brutally blunt reply.

He pulled his fingers out and sighed. “You know what, I guess you are a bit right about some things.”

He cracked his neck.

“You’re right, I’m a villain.”

He reached for his sword.

“I’m the big baddie that stole hearts and broke them, heck, I even got Mister Protagonist to fall into my web of romance somehow.”

He closed his eyes.

“But you know what? _”_

He reopened his eyelids, stared at his enemy, pointing the tip of his sword towards the witch.

He smirked, he was looking forward to getting that bitch _out of his life._

  
“Looks like this time… _I'll be **your**_ _**villain**_ ** _.”_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's _*clap*_ time _*clap*_ to _*clap*_ beat _*clap*_ the _*clap*_ bitch  
> I don't care if its sappy, its what i think felt right dqhsb sorry if this chapter is disapointing  
> Anyways, next time, we will have the grand finale! Please give me time, this will be hard to write out jdfdhw  
> Ayways, I hope you enjoyed!


	17. Loving Future Ending

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The End.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man that was hard to write. Also I'm sorry if this chapter is a bit disapointing and a bit too short jndbhdjs

After his declaration, the blonde witch clicked her tongue and retreated. Jumping in the hair into her swarm of minions.

 _“Hey!”_ Exclaimed Hajime, offended at her escape.

From the bottom of the tower, he heard a voice echoing. “There is _no escape_ for you witch!” Then a transparent blue eagle flew towards the blonde woman.

She slapped the magic away. “You’ll have to try harder!” And she sent Monokumas towards the students at the bottom of the structure.

Hajime didn’t know what to do however, no more Monokumas were coming his way and were instead aiming for his classmates. Alas he couldn’t exactly jump down the tower to help them, even with his strength the height would seriously hurt him. And Enoshima was out of his reach in midair.

He could use his magic, however it would completely deplete his stocks which might be dangerous if he really needed it on another occasion.

In the middle of his torment however, he heard Usami call out to him: “Hajime! Go fight the witch! I’ll create platforms for you to fight!” On that cue, she waved her stick, and the debris from the tower roof that Enoshima destroyed started assembling stairs and platforms for Hajime to step on. Trusting his teacher, he ran up the glassy stairs and got up to Enoshima, slashing in her direction.

She quickly catched on and moved aside, and formed her own weapons, engulfing her hands in darkness, making her limbs take the form of black purple claws.

Her troops were too distracted dealing with the students to help her, and she was forced to throw down one on one against Hajime.

The brunette snorted. “Can’t create more troops to help you?”

She answered her question by launching herself at him, claws out to shred him to pieces.

He dodged the first swing and blocked the second with his blade.

“What? You ran out of despair?”

She again answered him with a swing, he wasn’t prepared for the sheer force behind it however, and was pushed back a bit. Seemed like she didn’t like his good old newfound sass.

“Come on witch, just lay down and disappear!”

 _“You_ _first_ traitor!” She barked back.

Her claws grew in size, and she lifted it up in the air to strike Hajime below. He rolled to the side, using the opportunity to get a hit in.

Getting ready for a splash of blood, he slashed at the witch. Only to get rewarded with weird black gooey blood.

 _“The hell!?”_ He couldn’t help but let out.

“What?” She was surprisingly unphased, she shrugged. “Surprised?”

In the original lore, Enoshima was apparently a witch that had been alive for a ridiculous amount of time. So it actually made sense she would have modified herself to be able to live on this long.

However, that probably meant she couldn’t be killed normally, judging from her neutral reaction.

Was she playing him? Pretending to be on the ropes to have a one on one fight she was sure to win thanks to her modified body?

_Oh_ that pissed Hajime _off._

Alright then. If she wasn’t going to enjoy his blade, then he would have to try something else.

He could keep hearing his comrades fighting against the Monokuma swarm, they needed to finish this quickly.

Also he really wanted her gone _as fast as possible._

“Hey guys!” Hajime yelled towards his friends.

The students all turned towards him.

“Let’s _shut this bitch_ **_down!”_ **

Fuyuhiko immediately answered: **“NOW** you’re speaking my language!”

The other started cheering along as well.

Hajime felt something building inside him, like a fire or turning gears. The fire burned harder; the gears turned faster, the machine was clicking into motion and spreading through his body. It was similar to when he freed himself from Enoshima’s grasp.

The glass in the debris was reflecting a strong light, a quick glance in his reflections inside it made him quickly realize his appearance changed, his hair turning white and both eyes turning red.

Huh. Not a bad look.

Usami exclaimed. “Everyone! Let’s channel our powers to Hajime!”

The brunette wasn’t looking so he didn’t know what they were doing, but he slowly felt himself being lifted off the platform, and he felt something clicking and appearing in his hand.

As the mass was forming, Enoshima looked quite… shook.

“How dare you use that magic against me! It’s mine!”

“Since when you witch?"

She started gathering power around her. “Ever since I put that spell! This power is mine! You’re destined to join me! It has to be this way!”

He was _so_ sick and tired of that stupid phrase. The golden mass in his hands formed a shape he hadn't seen since his previous world. “I don’t care if i'm doomed to be your ally or to die! I’ll make a third option!”

“You don’t have to look forward to a hopeless future!”

The mass has finally finished forming, it none other than the ultimate form of his Truth Bullet Magic.

An entire golden submachine gun.

He loudly clicked the machine and aimed at the witch.

_“No that’s wrong!”_

He pulled the trigger, and a plethora of golden bullets flew out of the shiny gun, each one of them piercing through Enoshima, tearing holes into her body.

She didn’t have time to let out screams of agony, the gun kept roaring along with the bullets, reducing her to a pile of gooey black.

The students cheered at Hajime’s victory, meanwhile, the brunette was exhausted. He poured all of his magic in it, even tapped into one he thought he didn’t have, the white of his hair and red of his right eye disappeared, and he fell on the platform.

He did it. He won.

So why did he feel imminent danger?

Something grabbed his leg. He quickly looked at what was restraining him, and it was none other than the pile of dark goo, latching onto him. Out of the disgusting puddle, a blue eye glowed.

“I’ll take you down _with me!”_

And the power Enoshima has been accumulating was released.

  
  
  


Hajime didn’t register what happened after that.

  
  
  


Next thing he knew was immeasurable pain, weakness, and voices yelling around him.

“Crap- how do we heal that!?”

“I-I don’t know- th-the wounds won’t go away!”

“Do something! We need to save him!”

“I’m trying!”

His eyes finally slowly opened.

“He’s awake!”

“Hajime!”

“Stay with us!”

Ah. Was he dying again? That the third time. That was getting tiresome.

“Don’t let him lose consciousness again!”

“How!?”

“Someone grab his hand!”

There was a faint sensation at the tip of his arm. Hajime couldn’t move, he only could slide his eyeballs to try and look through the blur of his vision.

He saw a patch of white hair, that’s all he needed to know.

“Hey Nagito?” His voice came out rusty and tired.

The white haired teen didn’t answer, but Hajime could feel his attention on him.

“Did I grant your wish?”

The white haired teen was silent but a bit, squeezing the brunette’s hand. “Yeah. You did.”

Hajime smiled. 

All those people were around him, concerned for him, concerned for his fate, cared about his existence.

They really loved him.

He let out a broken laugh.

“I’m glad. Because you granted my wish too.”

Then he couldn’t move anymore.

“We’re losing him!”

“Heal faster!”

“I-I’m trying!”

There were voices echoing. It wasn’t even really going through his ears anymore, it was just noises siping in his head.

“Stay with us!”

“You don’t have my permission to die!”

“Come on!”

He wanted to think of something, say something more, but he was too tired. He wanted to sleep.

_For once… I think a nap wouldn’t hurt…_

His eyes were closing. All he felt was a squeezing sensation at his hand.

There was sharp breathing;

Followed by the sound of fingers snapping.

* * *

  
  


Again, he was in darkness. He could percieve something in the distance.

It was… warm. Soft, gentle. It was nice.

He was seeing a white light. A light right in front of him.

Was he going to move on to another world?

Was this his new continue?

Or was this heaven?

He heard his name, it came from behind him.

He turned around to see another light, a green light, similar to healing magic. It was turning to a shade of pink and shining brighter.

There were two lights, the bright white light of above, and the pink light of below.

He quickly realized what this meant. He kept hearing his name echoing from the latter light. Echoed by his classmates, his teacher, his friends, his loved one.

He chuckled. This was an easy choice.

He started strolling towards the pink light.

He reached out to the light, he felt as if gentle hands were pulling him back towards it. And he could put a name on each and everyone of them. 

No more world hopping, no more fear, no more scripts to avoid or follow, no more doom. He finally had what he wanted, and he was going to hold on to it. Because he was lucky to have been reborn here, this world were he really belonged.

That’s the future he chose. He was the protagonist of his own story.

"I'm home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes I don't know how to end series i know its bad i know- hjncbhsdwj  
> You guys already understood that Hajime used future magic, and take a wild guess what was that finger snap and what magic it activated? hdjcbhdsj  
> Sorry if i was a bit too crytpic at the end, but i think you guys understood what that meant.
> 
> Anyways, I'm glad I did this series. This made me happy and I hope it made you guys happy too. And I hope you arent too dissatisfied with this ending djsnbhc  
> Thank you very much for reading this story!


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